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COKRIGHT DEPOSE 



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SCHWATKA'S SEARCH 




LIEUTENANT SCHWATKA. 



Schwatka's Search 



SLEDGING IN THE ARCTIC IN QUEST OF 
THE FRANKLIN RECORDS 



BY 



WILLIAM H. GILDER 



SECOND IN COMMAND 



'/: 7 WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 



N3V I 

V 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
743 and 745 Broadway 

1881 



Ua / 



1212 
.S-4- 



COPYRIGHT, 

By CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 

1881. 



PRESS OF J. J. LITTLE S, CO., 
NOS. 10 TO 20 ASTOR PLACE, NEW rORK, 



INTRODUCTION". 



On the 25th of September, 1880, the leading Eng- 
lish newspaper published the following words : — 

" Lieutenant Schwatka has now resolved the last 
doubts that could have been felt about the fate of the 
Franklin expedition. He has traced the one untraced 
ship to its grave beyond the ocean, and cleared the 
reputation of a harmless people from an undeserved 
reproach. He has given to the unburied bones of the 
crews probably the only safeguard against desecration 
by wandering wild beasts and heedless Esquimaux 
which that frozen land allowed. He has brought home 
for reverent sepulture, in a kindlier soil, the one body 
which bore transport. Over the rest he has set up 
monuments to emphasize the undying memory of their 
sufferings and their exploit. He has gathered tokens 
by which friends and relatives may identify their dead, 
and revisit in imagination the spots in which the ashes 
lie. Lastly, he has carried home with him material 
evidence to complete the annals of Arctic exploration." 

The record of Schwatka's expedition is written in 
these pages. Much of it has already been published in 
detached letters by the New York Herald, which en- 
gaged the author to act as its correspondent during the 
journey. Other hands than his have reduced it to its 

present shape, for his restless energy has again driven 

vii 



viii INTR OD UCTION. 

him toward the North, and has enlisted him among 
the crew of the Rodgers, which is seeking the lost Jean- 
nette. Beyond a mere concatenation of the chapters it 
has been nowhere altered with a view to literary effect 
or sensational color. The notes from which it is drawn 
were made from day to day ; and if critics find in it 
facts which are either inrprobable or unpalatable, they 
may, at least, have the satisfaction of knowing that it is 
a faithful narrative of carefully sifted evidence. 

This needs to be said because the statements of the 
writer have already been questioned in one or two de- 
tails. He says that the party experienced such cold 
weather as was almost without precedent in Arctic 
travel, the temperature falling to seventy-one degrees 
below zero. He says that the party killed more than 
five hundred reindeer, besides musk-oxen, bears, walrus, 
and seal, in regions where Rae and McClintock could 
scarcely find game at all, and where the crews of the 
Erebus and Terror starved to death. He says that of 
the last survivors of Franklin's party the majority were 
ofiicers, arguing tliafc the watches and silver relics found 
with their skeletons go far to prove their rank. These 
statements have been doubted. The accuracy of the 
thermometers being questioned, they were tested and 
found to be curiously exact. The facilities for procur- 
ing game were assisted by the use of improved weapons ; 
and besides, as Sir Leopold McClintock has justly 
shown, it was merely a tradition, not an ascertained 
fact, that these sub-arctic regions were destitute of ani- 
mal life. The method by which the official position of 



INTR OD UCTION. ix 

the bodies was determined is indisputably open to ob- 
jection. " Watches and silver relics," writes Vice-ad- 
miral Sir George Richards, "do not necessarily indicate 
a corresponding number of officers. Such light valu- 
able articles would naturally be taken by the sur- 
vivors." 

But the point which has provoked more criticism 
than all the rest is the native evidence that the dis- 
tressed crews were in the last resort reduced to canni- 
balism. This is set down just as it was heard, being 
worth neither more nor less than any testimony on an 
event which happened so many years ago. Between 
the risk of giving pain to living relatives, and the re- 
proach of having suppressed essential parts of the story, 
no traveller should hesitate for an instant. Dr. John Bae, 
the veteran of Franklin search parties, writes to the 
author in the following words: u As my name is men- 
tioned in connection with the subject of cannibalism, I 
must state that when I came home in 1854 I felt bound 
to report in as condensed a form as possible all the- infor= 
mation given us by the Esquimaux, including the most 
painful part. I would have felt it my duty to do this 
even had my dearest friends been among the lost ones, 
for had I withheld any part of the sad story, it would 
have come to light through my men, and I should have 
been accused, with some show of justice, of garbling my 
report. I consider it no reproach, when suffering the 
agony to which extreme hunger subjects some men, for 
them to do what the Esquimaux tell us was done. 
Men so placed are no more responsible for their actions 



x INTRODUCTION. 

than a madman who commits a great crime. Thank 
God, when starving for days, and compelled to eat bits 
of skin, the bones of ptarmigan up to the beak and 
down to the toe-nails, I felt no painful craving ; but I 
have seen men who suffered so much that I believe 
they would have eaten any kind of food, however 
repulsive." 

On the other hand, Sir George Richards shows strong 
reasons why the Esquimaux should not be believed. 
"They are said to give as their reasons," he writes, 
" that some of the limbs were removed as if by a saw. 
If this is correct, they were, probably, the operators 
themselves. We learn from the narrative that they 
were able to saw off the handles of pickaxes and 
shovels. At all events the intercourse between the 
natives and such of Franklin's crews as they met is 
surrounded by circumstances of grave suspicion, as 
learned from themselves, and this suspicion gathers 
strength from various circumstances related on 
Schwatka's journey. Be this as it may, I take my 
stand on far higher ground. Of course such things 
have happened. Strong, shipwrecked mariners, sud- 
denly cast adrift on the ocean, have endeavored to 
extend life in this way when they were in hourly 
expectation of being rescued. But how different the 
case in point ! The crews of the Erebus and Terror, 
when they abandoned their ship, were, doubtless, for 
the most part, suffering from exhaustion and scurvy ; 
death had been staring them in the face for months. 
The greater part of them probably died from exhaus- 



INTR OD UGTION. xi 

tion and disease long before they got a hundred miles 
from their ships, and found their graves beneath the ice 
when it melted in summer, or on the beach of King Wil- 
liam Land. It is possible that no more than half a dozen 
out of the whole crew ever reached the entrance to the 
Great Fish River. We need not call in starvation to our 
aid. I fully believe that by far the greater portion per- 
ished long before their provisions were consumed. The 
only thing that would have restored men to convalescence 
in their condition would have been nursing and the com- 
forts of hospital treatment, not a resort to human flesh." 

Apart from these objections, of which the reader is 
only forewarned, the importance of the results achieved 
by Lieutenant Schwatka's expedition has not been, 
gainsaid by any one possessing the least acquaintance 
with Arctic matters. It made the largest sledge jour- 
ney on record, having been absent from its base of sup- 
plies for eleven months and twenty days, and having 
traversed 2,819 geographical, or 3,251 statute miles. It 
was the first expedition which relied for its own sub- 
sistence and for the subsistence of its dogs on the game 
which it found in the locality. It was the first expe- 
dition in which the white men of the party voluntarily 
assumed the same diet as the natives. It was the first 
expedition which established beyond a doubt the loss of 
the Franklin records. McClintock recorded an opinion 
that they had perished : Schwatka recorded it as a fact. 

The success of this latest Arctic journey has been 
attributed to small, as well as to greater causes. The 
advantages of summer exploration were manifest. The 



xii INTR OD UCTION. 

Esquimaux of the party gave invaluable aid, building 
snow-huts with the skill to which none but natives 
attain, coating the sledge-runners with ice according to 
a method which only natives understand, and by their 
good offices enabling the expedition to hold commu- 
nication and have dealings with the wild tribes with 
whom they came in contact. The dogs were chosen 
with the utmost circumspection, and justified this care 
by their wonderful endurance. Game was abundant. 
Such minor devices as the use of blue lights proved 
efficacious in the dispersal of wolves. Woolen foot 
gear, made by friendly natives, supplied a need which 
has often proved fatal in the Arctic. Good manage- 
ment kept all the Esquimaux loyal, and Schwatka's 
strong will helped the travellers to live while the dogs 
were falling exhausted and dying by the way. 

Among the relics that were brought home was the 
prow of the boat seen by Sir Leopold McClintock in 
Erebus Bay, the sled on which it had been transported, 
and the drag-rope by which the sled was drawn. There 
were also two sheet-iron stoves from the first camp on 
King William Land, a brush marked " H. Wilkes," 
some pieces of clothing from each grave, together with 
buttons, canteens, shoes, tin cans, pickaxes, and every 
thing that could in any way tend to identify the occu- 
pants of the different graves or those who died without 
burial. They were offered to the British Admiralty, and, 
having been gratefully accepted, were added to the relics 
already deposited at the Museum in Greenwich Hos- 
pital, and at the United Service Institution in London. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE. 

NORTHWARD 1 



CHAPTER II. 

The Winter Camp 16 

CHAPTER III. 
Our Dogs 40 

CHAPTER IV. 
In the Sledges 54 

CHAPTER V. 

Native Witnesses 73 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Midnight Sun 93 

CHAPTER VII. 
Relics 103 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Irving's Grave 124 

CHAPTER IX. 

Arctic Costumes 136 

xiii 



xiv CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER X. 

PAGE. 

Over Melting Snows 147 

CHAPTER XL 
Amateur Esquimaux 165 

CHAPTER XII. 
Walrus Diet ] 81 

CHAPTER XIII. 
The Return 192 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Famine 218 

CHAPTER XV. 
Esquimau Home-life 242 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Homeward 263 

CHAPTER XVII. 
The Graves of the Explorers 284 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE. 

Lieutenant Schwatka Frontispiece 

Camp Daly in Summer 16 

Esquimaux Going to the Hunting-ground 18 

A Cairn 29 

Cairn Marking Deposit op Provisions 31 

The Ships in Winter Quarters 36 

Esquimau Playing the Ki-lowty 43 

Camp Daly in Winter 55 v 

Down-hill with the Sledges 63 

Hunting Musk-oxen 66 

The Creat Bend in Hayes Eiver 69 . 

The Sources oe the Hayes Eiver 71 

Meeting with the Ookjooliks 75 - 

The Netchillik Ambassadress 81 - 

The Council with the Netchilliks 87 * 

Snow-huts on Cape Herschel Ill v 

Crossing Erebus Bay 117 v 

Curious Formation of Clay-stone 150 

Clay-stone Mounds 152 

The Breaking up oe the Ice 158 

The March Southward 160 

Schwatka's Permanent Camp 193 • 

Henry Klutschak's Camp= : 195 

xv 



xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

View on Back's River 211 

The Dangerous Rapids, Back's River 213^ 

The March in Extreme Cold Weather 221 J 

View on Connert River 227*/ 

Esquimaux Building a Hut 255 

Section and Plan of Esquimaux Hut 257 

Esquimau Woman Cooking 261 



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S. 5 



SCHWATKAS SEARCH. 



CHAPTER L 



NOETHWARD. 



" Haul in the gang-plank ; " " Let go the tow-line," 
shouted the captain of the Fletcher. Then he sig- 
nalled the engineer to go ahead, and the little schooner 
Eoihen was abandoned to her own resources and the 
mercy of the mighty ocean. The last frantic hand- 
shaking was over, and only wind-blown kisses and part- 
ing injunctions passed back and forth as the distance 
between the voyagers and their escort kept continually 
increasing, until nothing could be heard but the hearty 
cheers that wished for us a pleasant journey and un- 
bounded success. There was no time now for regrets, 
for if we would be comfortable we must direct our 
thoughts seaward and get our bunks ready for sleeping. 
So we were paired off and went immediately to work. 
As Lieutenant Schwatka was not only the senior officer 
of the expedition^ but at the same time taller than I 
by several inches, I willingly yielded him the top bunk 
of our state-room, and waited patiently outside until he 



2 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

had prepared Lis lair, for it would be impossible for 
two to work at the same time in such very narrow 
space. He at last arranged his two buffalo robes to 
his perfect satisfaction, and I soon spread my humbler 
blankets to the best advantage. So much accom- 
plished we retired to our first sleep on shipboard. 

We had left New York on the 19th June, 1878, a party 
of five, none of us unaccustomed to hardship and ad- 
venture. Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka, of the Third 
United States Cavalry, Polish by descent, American by 
birth, had been distinguished in the war; and I, who 
was second in command, had seen a good deal of active 
service. Henry Klutschak, a Bohemian by birth, a civil 
engineer by profession, brought us the advantage of his 
previous experiences in the Arctic; Frank E. Melius 
was an experienced whaleman ; and Joseph Ebierbing, 
well known as " Esquimau Joe," had been with CajDtain 
Hall and Captain Hayes in their journeys, and with 
the Pandora expedition from England. The Eotlien, 
that carried us, was commanded by Captain Thomas 
F. Barry. Her crew included a first, second, and third 
mate, a carpenter, blacksmith, cooper, steward and 
cook, three boat-steerers, and twelve men before the 
mast. To prepare her for encounters with the ice, the 
hull had been overlaid to the chain-plates with oak 
planking an inch and a half thick, and the stern had 
been covered with oak about two feet thick, over which 
was iron plating to the depth of three-quarters of an 
inch. She was a stout vessel of one hundred and two 
tons. The stock of provisions laid in on board of her 



NORTHWARD. 3 

for the use of the party included hard bread, Indian- 
meal, flour, molasses, pemmican, canned meats, pre- 
served vegetables, preserved fruits, coffee, tea, and 
chocolate. Horseradish was taken as a preventive 
against scurvy, and tobacco was stored in abundance 
for the use of such Esquimaux as might have stories to 
tell or assistance to offer. Arms and ammunition had 
been generously presented to us by several manufac- 
turers, and to individual bounty we also owed many of 
our books, night-signals, instruments, and the timber 
for our sledges. 

The commander of the Eothen was, indirectly, the 
originator of the expedition. Everybody knows that 
for more than twenty years explorers had been sailing 
from English and American ports in search of the 
bodies or the papers of Sir John Franklin and his 
party. The partial success which attended the investi- 
gations of Sir Leopold McClintock had served to whet 
the public appetite. A story which Captain Barry 
brought home from the Arctic made the curiosity still 
greater. He said that in 1871-73, while on a whaling 
expedition, he was frozen in with the Glacier in Re- 
pulse Bay, and was there visited by several Esquimaux 
who brought their families on board his vessel. They 
had lost their way while hunting, and were anxious to 
see the ships of white men. While on board the 
Glacier they spoke of a stranger in uniform who had 
visited them some years before, and who was accom- 
panied by many other white men. All of the party 
had afterward died, but the chief had meanwhile col- 



4 SCHWATKA' S SEARCH. 

lected a great quantity of papers. He had left these 
papers behind him in a cairn, where, among other 
things, some silver spoons had since been found. In 
the winter of 1876, while the captain was with the 
bark A. Houghton, before Marble Island, another set 
of Esquimaux visited him, and while looking at his log- 
book said that the great white man who had been 
among them many years before had kept a similar 
book, and having told him this one of them gave him a 
spoon engraved with the word " Franklin." 

This was enough to arrest the attention and stir the 
adventurous spirit of Lieutenant Schwatka. He be- 
came eager to organize a search party and find the 
cairn where the paj)ers were supposed to be still buried. 
He obtained leave of absence, went to New York, and 
proposed to Judge Daly, of the Geographical Society, 
to take charge of an expedition. After listening to 
the lieutenant's offer, Judge Daly gave him all the in- 
formation in his possession concerning the whereabouts 
of the supposed cairn, so far as its site could be ascer- 
tained from the history of the relics already said to be 
found, and commended hiiu to General Sherman, in- 
dorsing his application to be detailed to command the 
exploring party. The lieutenant also conferred with 
Messrs. Morrison & Brown, the shipping merchants 
of South Street, New York, who owned the whaling 
vessel on which the supposed clew was brought home, 
and they readily accepted his offer, and with the help 
of private subscriptions fitted out the Eothen. Their 
instructions to Lieutenant Schwatka were as follows : 



NORTHWARD. 5 

" Upon your arrival at Repulse Bay you will prepare 
for your inland journey by building your sledges and 
taking such provisions as are necessary. As soon as 
sufficient snow is on the ground you will start for King 
William Land and the Gulf of Boothia. Take daily 
observations, and whenever you discover any error in 
any of the charts you will correct the same. When- 
ever you shall make any new discoveries you will mark 
the same on the charts ; and important discoveries I 
desire to be named after the Hon. Charles P. Daly and 
his estimable wife, Mrs. Maria Daly. Any records you 
may think necessary for you to leave on the trip, at 
such places as you think best, you will mark ' Eotlien 
Franklin Arctic Search Party, Frederick Schwatka in 
command;' date, longitude, and latitude; to be directed 
to the President of the American Geographical Society, 
New York, United States of America. Should you be 
fortunate in finding the records, remains, or relics of Sir 
John Franklin or his unfortunate party, as I have hopes 
you will, you will keep them in your or Joe's control, 
and the contents thereof shall be kept secret, and no 
part thereof destroyed, tampered with, or lost. Should 
you find the remains of Sir John Franklin or any of 
his party, you will take the same, have them properly 
taken care of, and bring them with you. The carpenter 
of the Eothen will, before you start on your sledge 
journey, prepare boxes necessary for the care of relics, 
remains, or records, should you discover the same. 
Whatever you may discover or obtain you will deliver 
to Captain Thomas F. Barry, or whoever shall be in 



6 SCHWA TEA'S SEARCH. 

command of the schooner HJothen, or such vessel as may 
be despatched for you. You are now provisioned for 
eighteen months for twelve men. I shall next spring 
send more provisions to you, so that in the event of 
your trip being prolonged you shall not want for any 
of the necessaries of life. You will be careful and 
economical with your provisions, and will not allow 
anything to be wasted or destroyed. Should the ex- 
pedition for which it is intended prove a failure, make 
it a geographical success, as you will be compelled to 
travel over a great deal of unexplored country." 

Thus manned, equipped, and instructed, we sailed 
from New York. It was nearly a month before we 
saw our first iceberg. During the night of July 11th 
I heard the order given to wear ship, aud was called 
on deck to see an iceberg dead ahead ; but so great was 
the distance and so foggy the weather that it was some 
time before I could make it out, and then it appeared 
only as a thin, faintly bluish line. The eagle eyes of 
the second mate had discovered it in time to avoid any 
danger of collision; but the captain thought it more 
prudent to heave to and wait until dawn before con 
tinuing on our course . The following morning a regu- 
lar old veteran berg could be seen from the deck, about 
twenty miles away. It was apparently about a mile 
long, and could have supplied the city of New York 
with ice for many years, were there any way to pre- 
serve it for that purpose. During the 13th we saw 
four large icebergs, which passed close by the ship. 
While writing in the cabin, about eleven o'clock of the 



WORTH WARD. 7 

loth, the mate on watch called me on deck to see a 
magnificent aurora, the first we had seen. It was truly 
a grand spectacle. At the same time the moon was 
shining brightly and the sea was as smooth as glass. 
Near by an immense iceberg looked black against the 
red twilight along the horizon, while in the distance 
another berg was white in the light of the full moon. 
The air was filled with the voices of wild-ducks, who 
could be heard, but not seen. On Friday, the 19th, in 
latitude 59 deg. 54 min. north, and longitude 60 deg. 
45 min. west., thirteen icebergs were to be seen during 
the morning, and were of the most varied and pictu- 
resque description. One appeared like a huge circus 
tent, with an adjoining side-show booth; while near by 
another was a most perfect representation of a cottage 
by the sea, with gables toward the observer, and chim- 
neys rising at proper intervals along the roofs. On the 
other side of the vessel a huge monster presented a 
vast amphitheatre, with innumerable columns sparkling 
in the sunlight and dazzling the spectator with their 
intense brilliancy. I made a few sketches of the most 
remarkable in view ; but as twenty-three could be seen 
from the deck at three o'clock I gave up in despair. At 
six o'clock thirty -three were in sight, and the sun set 
beautifully, eight minutes past nine, surrounded by 
fourteen of these monsters of the deep. On the night 
of the 19th I went on deck to see an iceberg, which 
was a perfect counterpart of Newstead Abbey. One 
could almost fancy he saw the ivy creeping over its 
sides, so deceptive were the shadows that fell upon it 



8 SCH WA'I h'A • 8 SEA R C II. 

from pinnacles and horizontal projections innumer- 
able. 

At half-past seven o'clock in the evening we sighted 
a brigantine off the weather beam, while thirty-one 
icebergs were around us. The vessel was going the 
same way that we were hound, and was about fifteen 
miles away. Sunday night, the 21st, was a splendid 
night. One could read distinctly on deci throughout 
the entire night. There were plenty of icebergs around. 
Those in front and on both sides of the ship were black 
against the sky, the moon being on the other side of 
them, while those we passed shone in all their virgin 
In-auty in the bright moonlight. The red twilight 
still lingered along the horizon, graduating through 
a pale yellow tint to orange, and then deepening into 
intense blue that was almost black. The picture was 
fierce in color and startling in the contrasts it pre- 
sented. 

At a quarter before nine o'clock the next night we 
sighted Resolution Island in the dim distance. Spy- 
glasses were at once brought into requisition, and we 
could see that the mirage had fooled us, though, there 
seemed Little doubt of the land's being visible. The 
next morning the land was in plain sight, about thirty 
or thirty-five miles oil" the weather beam, and. the water 
Idled with small and dangerous pieces of ice. The land 
was covered with fog, and looked desolate enough, 
but nevertheless seemed acceptable after a tedious 
journey against head winds and calms. The wind 
was still directly out of the straits, and we had to beat 



NORTHWARD. 9 

backward and forward from Resolution to Button 
Island, and it seemed as if the straits were unapproach- 
able. Toward night the wind blew a perfect gale, and 
added to the usual dangers was the risk of running 
upon the innumerable pieces of loose ice which appeared 
on every side, many of them having sharp points pro- 
jecting below the surface of the water, and heavy 
enough to pierce the sides of any vessel going at the 
speed we were compelled to make in order to keep suf- 
ficient headway to steer clear of such obstacles as could 
be seen. The captain and first mate, who were on deck 
most of the night, said that disaster was imminent ; that 
the danger was constant, and that the night was withal 
one of the most terrible ordeals they had ever experi- 
enced. I was tired and slept soundly, and consequently 
knew nothing about it until morning, which dawned 
brightly and with a light breeze, under which we passed 
up to the first ice-pack I had ever seen. While en- 
gaged in conversation an inexperienced hand at the 
wheel brought us so close to a small cake of ice, about 
the size of a schooner, that collision was inevitable. A 
long projection beneath the water had a most danger- 
ous look, but fortunately was so deep that the keel of 
the JEothen ran up on it and somewhat deadened her 
headway. Long poles were got out at once, and, all 
hands pushing, succeeded after a while in getting her 
clear without damage ; but it was a perilous moment. 

We worked over toward the south side of the straits, 
and found a channel through which we could make but 
slow progress. The wind increased and blew terrifically 



10 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

all night, forcing the vessels to beat back and forth in 
the mouth of the straits, and we had a similar experi- 
ence on the night of the 22d, running the gauntlet 
under reefed mainsail and jib through loose ice and in 
imminent danger of shipwreck. Next day the ice ap- 
peared somewhat open, and Captain Barry concluded to 
venture into the pack. When we got into clear water 
we worked up to the bulkhead of ice and passed Res- 
olution Island. We were almost as glad to get rid of 
it as we had been to see it, nearly a week before. All 
the icebergs we saw were aground, and several of them 
had high arches cut into their sides, which looked 
as if our vessel might safely sail inside and secure a 
harbor. We worked up beyond the Lower Savage 
Islands, and in sight of the Middle Savage and Saddle- 
back Rock. 

When we went to bed the weather was a dead calm, 
and the water of glassy smoothness. Not a sound was 
to be heard save the distant thunder of bursting ice- 
bergs and the water swashing up against the field- ice 
that now and then passed with the current. It sounded 
for all the world like waves upon a rock-bound coast, 
or like the distant rumbling of a train of cars. About 
midnight Joe called me to announce that the natives 
were coming off to the ship in boats. I hastened to 
put on my clothes ; but before I got dressed I could 
hear the captain's voice shouting " Kimo " (Welcome), 
from the quarter-deck, and when I joined him I could 
see two dark objects that seemed to be approaching 
rapidly, and could hear the confused sounds of voices 



NORTHWARD. 11 

in conversation coming up from the water. Presently 
it could be seen that one was a kyack and the other an 
oniien, or women's boat, filled with women and children 
and a few men. By this time Joe had come on deck, 
and at Captain Barry's request invited them to come 
aboard. When they heard their native tongue from 
the stranger ship their surprise was unfeigned. The 
men bought a number of corlitangs and kummings (na- 
tive boots), as well as other articles of apparel, and gave 
in exchange small pieces of tobacco, a few cases of 
matches, and articles of clothing that were not worth 
keeping. Captain Barry got a quantity of whalebone, 
reindeer and fox skins, walrus ivory, a bear-skin, and 
about a hundred and fifty pounds of fresh reindeer 
meat. We also bought three dogs for about a pound 
of powder, and a kyack for Joe, for which the captain 
gave an old broken double-barrelled gun and a handful 
of powder and shot. The owner was in ecstasy over 
the bargain and Joe was more than happy. 

I could not help, however, feeling mortified that such 
advantage should be taken of their childish ignorance of 
values. I was not surprised, then, when Joe, who has 
been long enough in civilized lands to know what 
values are, came to me and said he thought it was wrong 
to rob these people. They were his own people, and 
from the same tribe, in fact, so that his interest was 
naturally with them. His own uncle was one of the 
chief men of this tribe, but at the time we arrived had 
gone inland with most of the men on a hunting expe- 
dition. Joe sent him his pocket-knife as a present, and 



12 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

also was liberal with needles among the women, who 
were very grateful for his generosity. The whalers 
seriously object to giving things away to the natives, as 
it renders their system of barter more difficult. It 
would be a greater benefit to all these tribes to send 
one or two of their most intelligent young men to the 
United States or to England for a few years, so that 
they could protect them against the rapacity of the 
masters and owners of whaling ships. They could then 
get something like a fair equivalent for the goods they 
have to dispose of. The natives are better whalemen 
than any of the seamen who come to this country, and 
they should certainly receive more than a handful of 
powder and a few bullets for hundreds of pounds of 
bone, worth about $2.50 a pound. Shortly after day- 
light the natives departed, and a breeze springing up 
we set sail upon our journey. 

Most of the day we were in full sight of the land, 
which I regarded with keen interest. It certainly 
seemed the most desolate-looking region I ever saw 
— a succession of hills of bald rock, with occasional 
patches of snow and moss ; not a house, nor a tree, 
nor, in fact, any sign of animal or vegetable life — and 
yet I longed to put my foot upon that barren soil and 
commence the work we had before us. 

One of the principal annoyances of all sailing-mas- 
ters in the Arctic regions is the sluggish action of the 
magnetic needle as they approach the magnetic pole, 
and it was a difficulty from which we were not exempt. 
The land all looks so much alike that even when run- 



NORTHWARD. 13 

ning in plain sight of it it requires the greatest famili- 
arity with the principal points to be able to steer by 
them. During the night of Friday, August 2, we, by 
some mysterious operation, got in between Nottingham 
and Salisbury Islands, when we thought we were be- 
yond the Digges. We found a bad reef, just on a level 
with the water's edge, about eight miles north-west of 
the north-west point of Nottingham Island, which is not 
down upon the charts, and is situated just where a ves- 
sel running along at night, " handy to the land," as sail- 
ors say, would inevitably run upon it. We put it 
down upon our charts and called it Trainor's Reef, as 
it was discovered by the third mate from the mast-head. 
During a previous voyage Captain Barry discovered a 
similar reef, about the same distance off the easterly 
point of Salisbury Island, which we also noted and put 
down as Barry's Rock. 

We reached Whale Point, at the entrance of Rowe's 
Welcome, during the morning of Wednesday, August 7, 
just seven weeks from New York, and about six o'clock 
a whale-boat reached the vessel's side, after having 
chased us all night. It was loaded with natives of the 
Iwillie tribe, two or three families of whom still re- 
mained at the Point, while the others had gone down 
to the vicinity of Depot Island, which is half-way be- 
tween Cape Fullerton and Chesterfield Inlet. The vis- 
itors comprised two men, a woman, two boys, a little 
orphan girl, and a baby. The woman was a daughter 
of " Prince Albert," a man of considerable influence in 
his tribe, and I understood that his power was due to 



14 SCHWA TEA'S SEARCH. 

superior intelligence and sagacity. In fact, all those 
whom we met at this time seemed much superior in in- 
telligence to those who came aboard at the Lower Sav- 
age Islands. They were cleaner, but by a mere trifle, 
and showed improvement from contact with civiliza- 
tion. They usually preferred to array themselves in 
some part of the costume of white people, though not 
by any means particular in wearing it as white people 
do. One of the men was a young fellow known as 
"Jim," who, the captain thought, would be a desirable 
acquisition to our party to go to King William Land, 
and Joe made the proposition to him. He regarded 
the matter favorably, and was particularly interested 
when he saw some of our fine rifles. His father was an 
old man, called " The Doctor," who was dependent 
upon his son. After giving our guests breakfast and a 
few presents W e bade them good-by, and set sail for 
Depot Island, where we arrived about four o'clock in 
the afternoon. 

The lookout from the mast-head saw some boats com- 
ing from the main-land, and presently three kyacks, an 
omien, and two whale-boats came alongside, bringing 
about fifty people, including men, women, and children. 
Among them were Arinow and his two half-brothers, 
Ik-omer (Fire) and Too-goo-lan. " Papa " was there 
also, and he, too, is one of the few savages that are 
thoroughly reliable in every respect. He was one of 
Captain Hall's party when he visited King William 
Land in 1868. All these people seemed very friendly 
toward us, and upon a consultation over the charts we 



NORTHWARD. 15 

decided to go on to the main-land, near Depot Island, to 
spend the winter. We learned with deep regret that 
one of the Natchillis, who was said to have spoken to 
Captain Barry about the existence of books among the 
Franklin relics, had since died, and that nobody knew 
what had become of the other. We determined to 
make every effort to find the latter, for should he know 
where the books were hidden, and be willing to con- 
duct us there, our labor would have been materially 
lessened. But in any case, whether we found him or 
not, we had great faith that, by staying at least one sea- 
son on King William Land, when the snow was off the 
ground, we should be able to find the records, and com- 
plete the history of Sir John Franklin's last expedition. 



CHAPTEE II. 



THE WINTER CAMP. 



Meanwhile we had need of patience. Our camp, 
which was in latitude 63 deg. 51 min. north, and 90 
deg. 26 min. 15 sec. west of Greenwich, had been 





CAMP DALY IN SUMMER. 



named by Lieutenant Schwatka after the president of 
the American Geographical Society. The tents that 



16 



THE WINTER CAMP. 17 

had been provided for the expedition proving quite in- 
adequate for our wants, Captain Barry got Armow 
(the Wolf), one of tlie most influential natives, to let us 
have his tent, one that had been made by the crew of 
the brig A. Houghton, memorable to us as the vessel 
on which Captain Barry received his spoon. The Iwil- 
lie tribe moved up their tupics to the land nearest 
Depot Island, so as to be near us ; but finding they were 
a considerable distance from any fresh water, moved 
again to the spot where our stores were landed. We 
had bidden adieu to the officers and crew of the Eotlien, 
and had been rowed ashore by the Inuits. The soli- 
tude of our first day on land was enlivened by the visit 
of a ponderous young Natchilli, named Joe (or Nat- 
chilli Joe, to distinguish him from Esquimau Joe). He 
promised to accompany us in the spring. He was a 
fine-looking young man, with a big head, and a shock 
of raven-black hair, as massive-looking as a lion, and 
with none of the bloodthirsty look which I had been 
led to expect in the Natchilli features. He had been 
living with the Iwillie tribe for about two years, and 
they all liked him very much. We felt that it would 
tend to assure our favorable reception by his tribe to 
have one or two of their own people with our party. 

Ten days after we landed all went to the hunting- 
grounds but Armow and his party, who were to go in 
a boat, but it was so stormy that they did not get off. 
When the others broke camp and started over the hills 
it was a novel and interesting spectacle. Each one had 

his load, the women, in addition to their other burdens, 
2 



18 



SCHWA TEA'S SEA R CH. 



having to carry their children upon their backs. Be- 
hind them came their dogs, staggering under loads that 
almost hid them from view and getting into all kinds 
of trouble among the rocks. They were accompanied 
by "Jerry," a native for whom Esquimau Joe had a 
great liking. He took all his family except his son 
Kouniania, who had been given to me as a body-ser- 




ESQUIMAUX GOING TO THE HUNTING-GROUND. 



vant. Koumania was an unusually bright, manly lit- 
tle fellow, and, though so young, had already killed a 
.reindeer. We were all much interested in him, and his 
parents were much pleased that he had found favor 
with the Kodlunars. His father was one of Captain 
Hall's party in his Kin* William Land journey, and 



THE WINTER GAMP. 19 

Was also to accompany us. He seemed like a good, 
honest, faithful fellow, and had the reputation of being 
a first-class hunter. Koumania came running to me, 
before his father's departure, with his face covered 
with smiles and soapsuds, and I found that Frank had 
given him some soap and told him I would like him bet- 
ter if he would wash. Poor fellow ! he had done the best 
he could, and had at any rate shown a willing spirit. 

It was not until Wednesday that the boat party 
could get away. Most of the time it rained and blew 
a perfect gale. We were then alone in the camp, with 
the exception of a tupic, which contained one old man, 
two old women, and three children. There were plenty 
of dogs, though, and we had concerted music every 
night. I spent some time in making over some civil- 
ized clothes for my boy. I had to take them in every- 
where except around the waist. There he was as big 
as I am, though I weigh nearly two hundred pounds. 

I returned from a hunting and exploring excursion 
Saturday night, August 31, and had come to the con- 
clusion by that time, after satisfactory experience, that 
tuk-too hunting is not a pastime. It is good, solid 
work from beginning to end, with no rest for the weary. 
If any readers have meditated such a task as a diver- 
tisement, I would beg to dissuade them from the under- 
taking, for they know not what they do. Before at- 
tempting to follow tuk-too hunters over these hills and 
valleys, I would advise a severe course of training. We 
started on the morning of the 25th, in the midst of a 
strong gale, which had been blowing all night from the 



20 , SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

north-west, and was bitter cold. It rained, snowed, and 
hailed all at the same time, and the pelting hard stones 
cut our faces nearly all the morning. The party con- 
sisted of " Sam," another of Joe's friends, his two 
younger brothers, Koumania, and myself. I took a 
blanket and some little provisions, in case I should be 
out over night. We walked along, without stopping, a 
distance of about eight miles across the hardest country 
to travel over I had ever seen, and when we halted to 
rest I was indeed tired. The rocks and hills were hard 
enough to walk over, but the worst of all were the 
moss-covered meadows. Your foot would sink at every 
step, and it was as much like walking in loose, wet 
sand as anything with which I could compare it. I 
wore native boots, or kummings, as they are called, for 
I knew it would be impossible to get along with any- 
thing else ; but the sharp edges and points of the stones 
could be felt through them almost as if one were bare- 
footed. Do not think that the mossy meadows were a 
relief after the rocks. On the contrary, they were but 
a delusion and a snare, for beneath the velvet cushion 
was concealed the sharp and jagged rock that cut the 
foot all the same, and proved a more deadly, because a 
hidden foe. Though tired when I sat down to rest, I 
was more so when I got up to walk again ; but, ashamed 
of my weakness, I kept on, gritting my teeth and de- 
termined to do or die. 

It was getting late, and still we saw no deer — in fact, 
I was losing my interest in deer very rapidly, and only 
hoped I might soon see a tupic. After we had walked 



THE WINTER CAMP. 21 

about fifteen miles, " Sam " pointed out a mountain that 
did not seem so verj far off, and said, "lo wunga twpic 
sellow " (My tent is there). This was refreshing, and I 
plodded along still more determinedly. I would have 
given anything to have been back in my own tent, but 
that was out of the question. It was farther to go back 
than to go ahead, and though every bone in my body 
ached I plodded along, frequently stopping to rest. I 
thought we had passed the mountain that " Sam " had 
pointed out, and finally I ventured to ask him where 
the tupic was. His answer was invariably, " Con-i-tuk- 
vo-loo" (A little way), and I began to weary of the 
monotony of the answer, as probably he did of the 
question, until at last, in a valley farther off than I had 
originally thought the mountain, I saw the tupic. The 
approach was by a circuitous route, the wind still blow- 
ing so strongly against us that each took his turn in 
leading, the others crouching behind the slight shelter 
thus afforded. And this was a pleasure trip ! When 
we finally did reach the tent, I received the kindly wel- 
come of old " Molasses " and his wife, and dropped 
down on some deer-skins, completely used up. The 
hunters were naturally hungry after their long walk, 
and from a pile of fresh meat on the side of the tent 
" Sam " seized a large piece, half cooked, and taking a 
vigorous bite, cut off the mouthful with his disengaged 

k 

hand and passed the rest to the one standing nearest 
him, who helped himself in the same way, and thus it 
kept circulating until it was all gone. 

I awoke early the next morning, and went outside 



22 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

the tent and feebly attempted to walk ; but it was a 
most excruciating effort. My hip-joints, that ached like 
a toothache the night before, now seemed to be made 
of old rusty iron, and grated and shrieked when I tried 
to move, as if they rebelled against it. I felt as if there 
was nothing left for me to do but to walk the soreness 
off; therefore I kept moving, though I was conscious 
that my step lacked its wonted firmness and grace. 
After bathing in the lake that spread out in the valley 
in front of the tupic, I returned to find the hunters ready 
for the day's sport. I took up my rifle and started off 
with the hunters. Presently the pain left my hips, or, 
more properly speaking, my feet got so sore from the 
constant walking over sharp rocks that my mind was 
diverted in that direction solely. While resting on the 
top of a high bluff overlooking the lakes, I heard a faint 
" halloo," which seemed to come on the wind from an 
immense distance. I called " Sam's " attention to it, and 
he immediately dropped behind a rock, out of the wind, 
until it was repeated several times, when saying, " Inuit 
ky-ete" (Somebody says come), he started off down the 
steep mountain side in the direction of the voice, and 
the boys and I followed him. We walked nearly three- 
quarters of an hour before we finally saw the object of 
our search, and then he appeared perched on a rock 
against the clear blue sky, but still too far off to be 
recognized even by my hawk-eyed guides. At last we 
were near enough to see that it was " Alex Taylor," 
one of the Inuits from our camp, who had left with the 
others for the hunting-grounds. He had with him his 



THE WINTER CAMP. 23 

wife and two children, one a babe in the hood, and two 
bags packed with tupic and poles. He had a heavy 
back-load of skins, and his wife another big bundle. 
They seemed both surprised and pleased to see me. 
" Alex " told me that he had seen no deer that day, but 
had previously shot nine, and that there were " ania- 
suet " (plenty) farther on. He regaled us with some 
raw meat, and honored me with a nice raw deer 
tongue, which I ate with great relish after he had 
skinned it and eaten the skin. 

After luncheon and a pipe, we gathered up the bun- 
dles and trudged along until nearly sundown, when we 
arrived at a tupic under a cliff and between two large 
lakes. Two young married women and an old palsied 
crone came out to meet us. " Alex Taylor " told me that 
I was to stay there all night. The next morning, after 
walking about nine or ten miles without seeing anything 
in the way of game except some deer tracks, we ascended 
a high bluff that had been on our right since leaving 
camp, when, to my infinite delight, I saw a large river, 
which " Alex," tracing the course with his finger, indi- 
cated as emptying into a large bay near our camp, op- 
posite Depot Island. Its course was nearly straight for 
about three miles below and seven miles north of where 
we stood ; then, as my guide indicated with a wave of 
his hand, flowed to the east and as;am to the south. It 
extended much farther to the west and north, and from 
what I have since learned from the natives, rises be- 
tween the head of the Invich and Wao;er rivers, and is 
about ninety-five miles in length. To the south and 



24 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

west of where we stood it passed over a broad stony 
portage, and beyond that swelled out, as do most of the 
rivers in this country, into a series of broad lakes filled 
with islands. 

This discovery appeared to me of inestimable value, 
as indicating an entirely new and feasible route to King 
William Land, and, since my return to camp, Esqui- 
mau Joe, who had been away with the hunters for 
about three weeks, was here for a few hours, and told 
me that his hunting-camp was on the east bank of this 
same river, and the inquiry he has already made of the 
limits in his party confirmed my judgment of the fea- 
sibility of this route. I named the river after Mr. 
Thomas B. Connery, of New York. 

We resumed our walk, turning back along the bank 
of the river, which on the east side is high and almost 
perpendicular. We reached the portage, about three 
miles to the south, and crossed over to the west side, 
which is a low, rolling country, covered with moss, 
which at a distance looked like sun-burned grass. The 
portage was nearly a quarter of a mile wide, but by the 
exercise of some agility, where the current ran most 
swiftly through the large rocks, we got over without 
wetting our feet, and about a mile from the river bank 
stopped to rest on a rocky eminence. " Alex " pointed 
vaguely in the direction of some hills about two or 
three miles away, and said he thought there were some 
deer over there; but as I had been walking three days 
now without seeing a deer, and was desperately tired, I 
told him to go on if he wanted to, and take my rifle, 



THE WINTER CAMP. 25 

and I would wait till he came back. He trotted along, 
and I sat under the lee of a rock, taking advantage of 
the opportunity to write up my journal and trace the 
course of the river. In the meantime the sun sank 
lower and lower, but no signs of " Alex Taylor." 
About three hours after he left me he reappeared, with 
his hat in his hand and a heavy bundle over his 
shoulder, trotting along so nimbly that I envied him. 
He had shot two deer, a " cooney " and an " isaacer " — - 
that is, a doe and a buck — and he had their warm, 
bloody skins on his back. He said that there were 
plenty of deer over there, and to-morrow we would 
move the camp up to that spot. So we put the skins 
and some tenderloin in a cairn, and covered it up with 
heavy stones, and after eating some of the raw tender- 
loin we started for home. It was long after dark when 
we reached there, and I was glad to find Sam's tupic 
already up, with his old father and young mother, and 
my blankets and a little package of salt, which I had 
missed very much while eating so much raw meat. 

The next day we broke camp at an early hour, and 
moved bag, and baggage, to the place where " Alex 
Taylor" had shot the deer the preceding afternoon. 
Notwithstanding my sore feet and tired limbs, I took a 
load on my shoulders out of sheer shame, for without 
that I would have been the only one, old or young, biped 
or quadruped, without something, so I made a martyr of 
myself. Just after leaving the spot where " Alex " and 
I had cached the skins yesterday afternoon, ■" Sam " 
dropped his burden from his shoulders, grasped his 



26 iSOHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

rifle, and, with the single word " tuk-too, " started over 
the country on a run. Three others joined him, and 
the rest of us kept on until we reached the lake, where 
our new camp was to be located. The tents were soon 
put up, and the boys started off to carry in the two 
carcasses that "Alex" had shot and buried under 
stones. Presently the hunters who went off with 
" Sam " came back, saying they had seen nothing, and 
later " Sam " came in with the skin of a big buck which 
he had shot. He is quite young, but one of the best 
and most indefatigable hunters in the tribe. 

I went out in the morning with " Sam " and " Boxy " 
to find some deer. After some wanderings, in which 
" Sam " got separated from us, and after several unsuc- 
cessful shots at the game, " Roxy " and I returned, I 
being too weary and footsore to find much interest in 
the sport, especially as it began to rain and was bitter 
cold. In fact, the first new ice I have seen this summer 
was around the shores of the lake that morning, and I 
had to break it when I went down to bathe. On our 
way home we passed, on the top of a high, barren hill, 
a cairn, which "Roxy " at once said had been built by 
the Kinnepatoos, a tribe which formerly occupied these 
lands, and the boys soon threw aside the stones to find 
the dried-up skeleton of a deer killed many years ago. 
" Sam " did not get back until dark, but he brought 
with him the skin of an isaacer that he had killed since 
he left us. 

That night I proposed to " Sam " to bring me down 
to our tent at the salt water, and though I could see 



THE WINTER CAMP. 27 

that lie did not relish leaving the good hunting-grounds 
just as he had reached thein, he consented, and finally 
seemed delighted when I promised him an old pair of 
pantaloons for his trouble. " Alex Taylor " also came 
to the tupic and said he would accompany us, and this 
made the prospect more cheerful, as I knew it would 
be at least two days' hard travelling. During the 
night we were visited by a severe thunder-storm, which 
frightened my tent-mates because unused to it, and 
they lighted an ikomer to take the sharp edge off the 
lightning ; but I slept on peacefully while " Old Mo- 
lasses " held a stick so that the shadow kept the light 
of the lamp from my eyes. It stopped raining toward 
morning, but it was still chilly and damp when we 
started, shortly after daylight, on our long journey. 

" Sam " and " Alex " again got separated from us in 
pursuit of deer, and I became so chilly that we gave 
up waiting for them to rejoin us, and moved on. At 
last we could see Picciulok, as the natives call Depot 
Island, but it was at a considerable distance, and it was 
getting late. The sun was then below the horizon, and 
we hastened along to get sight of some familiar ground ; 
but, alas ! at every hill-top Picciulok seemed as far, if 
not farther off, and finally we could not see it all, it 
was so dark. My guides knew they were lost, and 
wanted to lie down until morning, but I kept them up, 
for I could see the stars and could keep the right 
course ; but the walking was terrible. My feet were 
now so sensitive that I could feel every sharp stone 
through the soles of my kummings, and the stony port- 



28 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

ages between the lakes and over the little indentations 
of the coast seemed to increase in number all the time. 
It was so dark that I could not see where to step, and 
my feet would slip down and wedge in the angle be- 
tween the sharp stones, or the point of a rock would 
come right in the hollow of my foot, until I stumbled 
and floundered and almost screamed with pain. And 
yet no familiar landmarks. I began to despair, or 
rather to doubt my physical ability to proceed, when 
the sharp-eyed Netchuk called my attention to the light 
from a tupic at a considerable distance, and a little to 
our right. This was indeed refreshing, so we kept on 
as well as we could, though we often fell, and I stag- 
gering with a strained cord in one foot and the skin 
worn off the sole of the other. But there were the 
lights ahead, and we kept right straight for them, 
though no matter how far we walked they seemed just 
the same distance off. It was certainly discouraging, 
and I could not help thinking of the will-o'-the-wisp, 
and wondering if the phenomenon was ever seen in the 
Arctic. I could not remember any instance in my 
reading, and determined to reach that light or perish 
in the effort. At last it did seem nearer. We could 
make out the shapes of the tents, and finally we could 
hear dogs barking and snarling, and before long we 
were there. We found the lights in the tupics that 
were occupied by the old folks left behind at Camp 
Daly by the hunters, and found " Alex Taylor," "Sam," 
and the boy had just got in; so, after learning that 
" Alex " had killed two deer with my gun, " Sam " and 



THE WINTER CAMP. 



29 



Kouinania and I went up to our own tent, which was 
dark. 

These were our diversions. Our business was to in- 
quire into the truth of Captain Barry's story. Pursu- 
ing our investigation through the next three months, 
we learned that there had never been other than three 
families of Natchillis living with the Iwillik Esqui- 
maux. One of those, the native who had died in the 
preceding winter, was an aged paralytic called " Mon- 



f^ 



key," whose tongue was so affected that even his own 
people could scarcely understand him. The second 
was Natchilli Joe, known to his own people as Ekee- 
seek, who was a child in his mother's hood at the time 
when he lived on King William Land, and only knew 
the story of the Franklin expedition from hearsay. 
The third, Nu-tar-ge-ark, a man of about forty-five or 
fifty years of age, gave us valuable information. His 



30 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

father, many years ago, opened a cairn on the northern 
shore of Washington Bay, in King William Land, and 
took from it a tin box containing a piece of paper with 
some writing on it. Not far from this same spot were 
the ruins of a cairn which had been built by white men 
and torn down by Inuits. The cairn had been built 
upon a large flat stone, which had the appearance of 
having been dragged to its present location from a 
stony point near by. The cairn itself was found to be 
empty, but it was generally believed by the Inuits that 
there was something buried beneath this stone. It 
was very heavy, and as they had only been there in 
parties of two or three at a time, the}^ had never been 
able to overturn the stone, though they had repeatedly 
tried. Nutargeark also said he had brought a spoon 
with him from King William Land, which corresponded 
in description with the one Barry took to the United 
States. He said it was given to him by some of his 
tribe, and that it had come from one of the boat places, 
or where skeletons had been found on King William 
Land or Adelaide Peninsula, he could not remember 
exactly where. He had not given the spoon to Cap- 
tain Barry, but to the wife of Sinuksook, an Iwillik 
Esquimau, who afterward gave it to a Captain Potter. 
We saw Sinuksook's wife a little later, and she dis- 
tinctly remembered having given the spoon to Captain 
Potter. It was necessary, therefore, to find this officer. 
During the first week in January, 1879, we learned 
that he was wintering at Marble Island, being now sec- 
ond in command on the whaler Abbie Bradford. So 



THE WINTER CAMP. 



31. 



Henry Klutschak and I made our way to Marble Island, 
with the first sled that had crossed from the main-land, 
being eight days on the road from Depot Island. We 
had reason to believe that Captain Barry and the 
Eothen would also be at our destination, and that we 
could there replenish our stores. The trip was une- 
ventful, except that when four days out I ran out of 




CAIRN MARKING DEPOSIT OF PROVISIONS. 



food through sharing my hard bread and pork with the 
natives, of whom there were twelve on my sled. They 
had plenty of tepee walrus meat, which was good food 
for them, but which I could not at that time eat. So 
for four days I had not a mouthful to eat, though I 
walked and ran nearly the whole distance travelled. I 
did not experience much inconvenience from weakness 
until the last day, which was that on which we came 
across the ice from Little Kabbit Island. When nearly 



32 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

half- way over, and moving rapidly over the new ice, 
the sled on which I was seated broke through, and all 
its occupants were precipitated into the water. The 
front part of the sled still hung by the ice, which bent 
beneath its weight. When I was struggling to get out 
the ice kept breaking off in huge cakes, and my cloth- 
ing getting heavier and heavier all the time, I began to 
think that I would not be able to save myself ; but at 
last I succeeded in rolling out upon the hard ice, and 
turning around to see if my help was needed in rescu- 
ing the women and children, found them already safely 
landed on the floe. The thermometer ranging thirty- 
eight degrees below zero, we were not long standing in 
the wind before our clothes were frozen stiff, so that it 
was almost impossible to bend a limb. 

We succeeded in getting the sled out again, and 
started once more for Marble Island. I went ahead to 
pick out a route for the sled, and again the treacherous 
ice gave way under me, and I sank below the surface. 
It was with great difficulty that I regained the firm ice, 
and by this time my clothing was so heavy and stiff 
that I had to take off my outside tocklings, or trousers, 
, z iai order to walk at all. It was now about ten o'clock 
in the morning, and in half an hour we reached about 
two miles distant from the island, but only to find an 
impassable channel of open water from a quarter to 
half a mile wide. We could see some one walking 
upon the shore of the island, but could hold no conver- 
sation with him. The natives who were with me said 
that when the tide turned perhaps the channel might 



THE WINTER CAMP. 33 

close, and they proposed to wait ; but in the meantime I 
was afraid I might freeze to death unless I kept mov- 
ing. In the course of a few hours, during which I 
found out that I could not get back to Rabbit Island 
before dark, I became so faint for the want of food 
that I had to get some tepee walrus from the natives, 
and I ate it with a keen appetite. It did not taste as 
badly as I anticipated, so I ate a quantity, including 
some pieces of hide, about three-quarters of an inch 
thick, which was cut into small pieces and looked like 
cheese. After eating several pieces I thought I would 
bite off the outside rind, which, on closer examination 
I noticed to be the short stiff hair of the animal which 
I had been eating. Presently I began to feel warm all 
over my body, despite my frozen clothing — a condition 
attributable partly to the peculiar qualities of frozen 
food, and partly perhaps to the rasping in my interior, 
produced by the stiff walrus hair that I had eaten. It 
was now nearly dark, but we could see that the ice-floes 
were coming together, and crunching up a pudge of 
soft ice between them. At last the men started out 
over this pudge, stepping quickly from one piece of 
moving ice to another, until at last we reached firm 
footing again, though only by the exercise of considera- 
ble agility and looking sharply to where you went. It 
was a great relief to be again upon the shore ; but we 
were still a considerable distance from the ships, and 
the Inuits proposed to lie down on the snow until day- 
light, as they could not see and did not know the route. 
I was afraid to stop moving, and proposed to keep 



34 SCHWA TEA'S SEARCH. 

walking in the direction of the harbor. All who came 
ashore, therefore, started with us ; but the road at last 
became so difficult that I felt it necessary to rest quite 
often, wearied as I already was by previous hardships. 

The route chosen by our guide was to follow the 
shore ice around until the harbor was reached. This 
was a very circuitous and dangerous road, as in the 
darkness one would frequently pitch headlong over a 
steep precipice upon the snow beneath. My trousers 
were so stiff that I could not bend my knee or lift my 
foot higli enough to clear ordinary impediments, and I 
fell very often. It was fortunate for me that I never 
fell upon the shore ice beneath the cliff, for in many 
places it was very deep, and I could not see where I 
trod. When I commenced falling I never knew where 
I would alight, though I usually brought up in some 
friendly snow-drift. At last all the limits grew so im- 
patient to reach the ships that they left Henry and me 
to find our way as best we could, and pushed on as 
rapidly as their better vision and greater familiarity with 
the country would permit. In half an hour from the 
time they left us they had reached the harbor ; but with 
their accustomed indifference to the comfort of others 
they failed to say that two Jcodlunars (white men) 
were still out upon the island — one of them too weak 
and frozen to keep up with them. As soon as the offi- 
cers learned the fact from them, Captain Barry de- 
spatched " Domino," one of the natives with his ship, 
to find us and bring us to the vessel. We saw a lan- 
tern which he carried, and, coming down from the cliff 



THE WINTER CAMP. 85 

upon the smooth ice, were overjoyed to find ourselves 
in the harbor and but a few hundred yards from the 
ships. We shouted at the top of our voices, and " Do- 
mino " ran at once to us. I never was so glad to see 
any one in my life, for I felt that the terrible ordeal 
through which I had passed was at an end. We were 
soon in the warm cabin of the JEoihen, where my frozen 
garments were removed and warm, dry Tcodlunar cloth- 
ing substituted. Were it not for the previous training 
we had undergone in igloo life, I could not have sur- 
vived the hardships of that day. As it was, I felt very 
little inconvenience, except from a severe cold, which 
always follows a change such as moving from an igloo 
into the heated air on shipboard. My appetite was 
enormous, and it seemed as if I could not eat enough 
of the generous fare of our hosts. I soon regained my 
usual robust health, and gained flesh at the rate of a 
pound a day for three weeks. 

In the harbor, besides the Eotlien and the Abbie 
Bradford, the latter commanded by Captain Fisher, we 
found the Abbott Lawrence, Captain Mozier, and the 
Isabella, Captain Garvin, all except the Eoihen being 
from New Bedford. The ships were all comfortably 
housed with boards, and so banked up with snow that 
ordinary coal fires made them uncomfortably warm. It 
was painful to see, however, that scurvy had broken out 
in the fleet, and each vessel has had an average of half 
a dozen cases during our stay with them. They had 
more than the usual amount of fresh meat at this sea- 
son, and it was difficult to account for the unusually 



36 ' SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

large percentage of scurvy, unless Captain Fisher's the- 
ory were the correct one. He attributed it to the un- 
usual severity of the fall and early winter-season, which, 
he said, was unprecedented in his experience of over 
fourteen years in these waters. The ships were driven 
into winter quarters nearly a month previous to the 







THE SHIPS IN WINTER QUARTERS. 



usual time by a succession of gales and heavy weather, 
which occasioned the loss of one vessel of the fleet — 
the brig A. J. Hoss, of New Bedford, Captain Sinclair, 
which went ashore near Cape Kendall, on the eastern 
coast of Howe's Welcome, during the latter part of Au- 
gust. Though scurvy had been so prevalent it had not 
been so severe as usual, and as yet the graveyard on 



THE WINTER CAMP. 37 

" Deadmen's Island," 011 the outer harbor, had received 
no accession from the crews. The successful treatment 
of the disease seems to be to compel the patient to eat 
abundantly of raw walrus or seal meat, and to take 
moderate exercise, at first under shelter and then in the 
open air. 

The officers of the vessels treated us with the most 
unbounded generosity, and readily placed at our disposal 
whatever they could spare that we required. The wreck 
of the A. J. Hoss had thrown the care of another crew 
upon them, and yet they could find plenty to add to the 
comfort of those who have another season in this cli- 
mate and a long and severe journey before them. Cap- 
tain Sinclair, though himself so great a sufferer by the 
loss of a vessel in which nearly his whole means were 
invested, had been a large contributor toward the search 
party. They expected to be frozen in here till about • 
the 1st of June, when they could saw a channel through 
the ice to the clear water beyond Deadmen's Island. 
Marble Island has been the winter quarters of whaling 
vessels for many years, though not altogether a safe 
harbor. In the winter of 1872 two vessels were wrecked 
here, the Ansel Gibbs and the Oray laft. The hulk of 
the latter still lay upon the shore of the inner harbor, 
but the Ansel Gibbs broke up outside and had long 
since gone to pieces. The graves of a number of their 
crews are in the graveyard by the sea. Upon the bald 
face of a rock near the outside harbor is a list of names 
written in red paint nearly a century ago; but whether 
a visitor's list or a gigantic tombstone to record those 



38 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

who perished here long ago by shipwreck is unknown. 
Upon the north-east end of the island, partly hidden by 
moss, is a quantity of soft coal, which was probably 
left here by one of the early Arctic explorers. 

The loss of so many vessels in these waters is chiefly 
attributable to the imperfections in the admiralty charts. 
The coast line is altogether wrong, and Marble Island 
is laid down several degrees west of its actual position. 
Lieutenant Schwatka and Henry Klutschak made care- 
ful surveys from Cape Fullerton to the island, and made 
a chart which has already proved useful to the whalers. 

But our more immediate business was with Captain 
Potter. I asked him if he remembered Captain Barry's 
getting a Franklin spoon while with him on the Glacier, 
and he said he had never heard anything about it until 
he read in the newspapers that Barry had sent one to 
Sir John Franklin's niece, Miss Craycroft, which sur. 
prised him very much. He further said that he (Pot- 
ter) had received three spoons at that time, one of 
which mysteriously disappeared shortly afterward. The 
published description of Barry's spoon corresponded 
exactly with the one he had lost, even to its being 
broken off near the bowl and mended with copper, as 
was the one he had received from Sinuksook's wife. 
Captain Potter further said, that to one who had lived 
with the Esquimaux, and acquired the pigeon English 
they use in communicating with the whalers in Hud- 
son's Bay, and contrasted it with the language they use 
in conversation with each other, the assertion of Cap- 
tain Barry, that he overheard them talking about books 



THE WINTER CAMP. 39 

and understood thera, was supremely ridiculous. There 
is probably no white man in the Arctic, or who ever 
visited it, that would understand them under such cir- 
cumstances unless it be one or two in Cumberland, who 
have lived with them for fifteen or twenty years. 

In this crucible of fact the famous spoon melted. So 
far as Captain Barry and his clews were concerned, we 
had come on a fool's errand. 



CHAPTEE III. 

OUR DOGS. 

There being no cairn, as a matter of course there 
was no guide to conduct us to it ; but instead of re- 
turning to New York from Camp Daly, as he would 
have been justified in doing, Lieutenant Schwatka de- 
termined to make the summer search in King William 
Land, in order to find the records, if possible ; or, at 
any rate to so conduct the search as to make it final 
and conclusive of the Franklin expedition. Lieutenant 
Schwatka was much impressed with the statements 
made by Nutargeark, especially as this native's intel- 
ligence and veracity were tested by his pointing out 
correctly upon the map the location of cairns which he 
had seen, including one at Cape Herschel, built by 
Dease and Simpson in 1839, and the spot where 
McClintock saw a boat with skeletons. Both Hall and 
McClintock account for the fact of so few bodies being 
found, by the presumption that Captain Crozier and his 
men followed the shore ice down, and, dying there, fell 
through into the water when the ice melted during the 
summer. Nutargeark, however, said that there were 
plenty of bodies lying upon the ground on King William 

Land, which would be invisible in winter from being 

40 



OUR DOGS. 41 

covered with snow. To verify these statements was 
the purpose of our journey. 

The first thing necessary was to get dogs enough for 
our teams. To that end I made a visit to the land of 
the Kinnepatoos, which is about seventy miles west and 
north from Marble Island. I found them in igloos, 
upon a large lake on the western shore of Hudson Bay, 
and was the first white man who had been there. 
Many of this tribe had never seen a white man before, 
but all were exceedingly friendly. I found that they 
had but few available dogs, but succeeded in securing 
from them several fine animals by the exchange of am- 
munition, tobacco, and matches, which are the staples 
of trade with these people. I found their igloos to be 
much larger and better built than those of the northern 
natives. The entrance would usually be by a narrow 
passage-way, excavated from a snow-drift, six to eight 
feet below the surface, and perhaps twenty-five or thirty 
feet long. They had no fires for heating the igloos, 
and, consequently, there was a clammy, vault-like atmos- 
phere indoors that was anything but pleasant. They 
use oil only for light, and, even in the depth of winter, 
cook what little food they do not eat raw with moss. 
As I approached the village I was walking ahead of 
my guides, who were with the sled. It was getting 
late, and we were endeavoring to trace the direction 
by following the tracks on the snow which covered 
the lake ; but a high wind, which was blowing from the 
north, had nearly obliterated all signs and rendered 
the task a difficult one. Presently, however, I heard the 



42 SCHWATKA\S SEARCH. 

barking of dogs and the voices of a number of children, 
who soon appeared approaching over a hill on the right 
bank of the lake, beyond which the village was built. 
I hastened toward them, and was shortly conducted 
into an igloo where all the men were seated, tailor 
fashion, around bones which showed that justice had 
been done to a hearty repast of frozen deer meat. They 
extended a rude but cordial welcome, and hospitably 
inquired if I was hungry ; but as I had recently eaten a 
quantity of frozen salmon I declined further food. I 
had long ago learned to relish fish and meat which they 
call "topee," and which civilized people denominate 
" rotten." When frozen it does not taste any worse 
than some kinds of cheese smell, and is a strong and 
wholesome diet unless eaten in great quantities. It 
fortifies the system against cold, and, shortly after eat- 
ing, causes a healthy glow of warmth to pervade the 
body, even in the coldest weather. I can now eat 
almost anything an Esquimau can, and almost as much. 
Though the weather during the four days of my 
journey out was intensely cold — the thermometer rang- 
ing from thirty to sixty degrees below zero most of 
the time, with a strong wind blowing — I did not suffer 
with the cold, except that my nose and cheeks would 
occasionally freeze. In fact, if I had no nose I believe 
I could stand the cold nearly as well as the natives. 
Even they are constantly freezing their noses and 
cheeks, and there seems to be no way of avoiding this 
very disagreeable contingency. 

I was with the Kinnepatoos a week, during which I 



OUR DOGS. 



43 



lived upon frozen meat and fish, and enjoyed myself 
studying their habits and customs. Every night they 
met in one large igloo, twenty-five feet in diameter at 
the base, and twelve feet high, where the men would 
play upon the ki-lowty while the women sung in unison. 
The Id-lowty is a drum, made by stretching a thin deer- 




ESQTTIMAXT PLATING THE KI-LOWTY. 



skin over a huge wooden hoop, with a short handle on 
one side. In playing, the man grasps the handle with 
his left hand, and constantly turns it, while he strikes it 
upon the wooden side, alternately, with a wooden drum- 
stick shaped like a potato-masher. With each blow he 
bends his knees, and though there are various degrees 



44 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

of skill in playing, I have never yet learned to be 
critical. I can only see a difference in style. Some 
are dramatic, some classical, some furious and others 
buffo. The song is a monotonous, drawling wail, with 
which the drumming has no sort of connection, for it 
increases and diminishes in rapidity according to the 
pleasure or strength of the player. I am sure a con- 
cert, such as 1 witnessed nightly, would cause a sensa- 
tion in New York, though I do not believe it would 
prove a lasting attraction to cultivated audiences. I 
frequently got very weary of it, and often slept during 
the performance without giving offence to my hosts by 
my lack of appreciation. One night the entertainment 
was varied by a dramatic performance that was exceed- 
ingly interesting. There were three players, who walked 
about the arena and conversed, occasionally passing off 
the stage, not by the right and left, but stooping down 
and darting in and out of the door of the igloo, an en- 
trance two feet high and about the same width. As 
nearly as I could understand, while outside in the dark 
the players saw some supernatural horror, which on en- 
tering they would endeavor to explain to the audience ; 
but words failing to convey all they felt, they resorted 
to pantomime, until at last one, who was more affected 
than the others, came in and expired in the arms of his 
comrades. I was intensely interested during this novel 
performance, and imagined I recognized considerable 
histrionic ability on the part of the players. 

During the daytime those men who were not out 
hunting engaged in playing a game somewhat allied to 



OUR DOGS. 45 

gambling, which they call u nu-glew4ar." A small piece 
of bone is suspended from the roof by a line made of 
walrus hide, and a heavy weight dangles below it to 
keep it from swinging. The bone is pierced with four 
small holes, and the players, as many as choose to en- 
gage, stand around, armed with sharp sticks, with which 
they jab at the bone, endeavoring to pierce one of the 
holes. Some one starts the game by offering a prize, 
which is won by him who pierces the bone and. holds 
it with his stick. The winner in turn oifers something 
for the others to try for. It is perfectly fair, because 
unless one wins it costs him nothing. They are very 
fond of this game, and play almost incessantly.. An- 
other similar game is played by placing a prize in a 
bowl made out of a musk-ox skull, the players stand- 
ing in a circle around the bowl, which is then set twirl- 
ing rapidly. The one toward whom the handle points 
when the bowl stops moving is the winner, and replaces 
the prize with another. This game, like nu-glew-tar, 
has no end, and the players only stop when they get 
hungry and adjourn to eat. The men all dine together 
in one igloo, no women being allowed to be present, 
and generally demolish the whole of a carcass of rein- 
deer at a meal. This may be called their dinner, but 
when they have plenty of food on hand they eat nearly 
all the time. In the morning, before getting out of bed, 
they eat ; and at night, after getting into bed, or " sin- 
nek-pig" as they call it, they eat. A few whiifs from 
a pipe are always in order, and especially so after eat- 
ing. The pipe is passed from mouth to mouth, without 



46 SCHWA TEA'S SEARCH. 

regard to any foolish civilized notions of cleanliness. 
Eating frozen fish or meat always makes one cold at 
first, but presently warm. So always, after eating the 
mid-day repast, the men pull their hoods over their 
heads, draw their arms out of their sleeves and cross 
them over their warm, naked breasts, and wait patiently 
and in silence for the heated term to ensue; but during 
the silent period they resemble a group of mummies, 
and are about as cheerful. When they begin to feel 
warm their spirits rise, and they are soon like a parcel 
of good-natured children. When their stomachs are 
full they are contented and happy. The principal diet 
of the Kinnepatoos is deer meat, as that of the Iwilliehs 
is walrus and seal. 

I left the Kinnepatoo village, returning to Marble 
Island in two days' journey, though it took me four 
days to go. I returned by a shorter route, and travelled 
after the sun had gone down, the moon affording suffi- 
cient light to see our way. On my return I discovered 
another large lake between the one on which the Esqui- 
mau village was located and the salt-water ice. This 
smaller lake is probably twelve miles long and from 
two to four miles wide. The larger one is about forty- 
five miles long and fourteen wide at the widest point. 
It is known among the natives as " The Big Lake," and 
with the approval of Lieutenant Schwatka I named it 
Brevoort Lake, after Mr. James Carson Brevoort, of 
Brooklyn, N. Y., whose deep interest in Arctic research 
was felt by this as well as other expeditions. The 
other lake I named after General Hiram Duryea, of 



OUR DOGS. 47 

Glen Cove, a warm personal friend and comrade in arms, 
who was also a contributor toward the expedition. On 
my way back to Marble Island, instead of following the 
shore ice along to the narrow place where the pack is 
choked between Rabbit and Marble islands, I struck 
off in nearly a direct line for our destination, crossing 
most of the distance over the thin new ice. The ad- 
vantage in this route was that, besides being much 
shorter, the ice was free from snow, and the dogs could 
run at nearly full speed. To be sure it was open to 
the objection of being dangerous ; but moving as rap- 
idly as we did there was scarcely time for the sled to 
break through, though the water oozed up along the 
track of the sled as we sped swiftly over the surface 
of smooth thin ice. It was pretty venturesome, per- 
haps, and I might be excused if I was nervous, for 
twice before I had broken through on a sled and bathed 
in the waters of Hudson's Bay. But I was anxious to 
reach the ships and finish what work I had to do, so as 
to get back to Depot Island in time to have all the 
dogs well fed before starting upon our long journey. 

I should here say that the dogs of Hudson's Bay and 
contiguous territory do not resemble those usually pic- 
tured in the illustrated editions of Arctic works, which 
are the Greenland dogs. From what I gather by read- 
ing of the performances of the dogs in Greenland and 
North-eastern Asia, and comparing them with our ex- 
perience in Hudson's Bay, I should judge the animals 
from the latter country to be immeasurably the supe- 
rior in endurance and pluck, though perhaps inferior in 



48 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

speed for one or two days' travel. When food is plen- 
tiful the dogs are fed every other day while travelling ; 
but if living in camp once in ten or twelve days is con- 
sidered enough, and often twenty days will intervene 
between meals. Not but that they pick up a trine now 
and then, and by a raid on an igloo will secure meat 
enough to last for several days. Their mode of life 
forces upon them the character of thieves, and all their 
waking moments are devoted to the one object of mak- 
ing a raid. Whether it be on the meat in the igloo or 
the storehouse, or the bag of blubber for the lamps, or 
the seal-skin clothing, it is all the same. They know 
from experience that the severest penalty will be en- 
forced as a punishment for their offence but to them 
the pleasure of theft and the exquisite bliss of - greasing 
their stomachs with a slice of blubber outweighs every 
other consideration. 

Too often have they felt the cruel snow-stick across 
their defenceless heads, and the sting of the long-lashed 
whip cutting a morsel of flesh at each blow, to doubt 
the quality of their reception, and the howl of pain as 
they start upon the grand rush is in anticipation of the 
end. A raid can sometimes be brought to an end with 
a good stout club that will knock a dog senseless at 
each blow ; but there is nothing like the ip-er-ow-ter, 
the Esquimau dog whip, to bring them to their senses. 
The ip-er-ow-ter has a handle made of wood, bone, or 
reindeer horn, about twelve or eighteen inches long, 
and a lash from eighteen to thirty feet in length. The 
lash is of seal-skin or oak-jook, that part of the thong. 



OUR DOGS. 49 

near the handle being plaited or doubled to stiffen it, 
or give a spring that adds materially to its usefulness. 

The men acquire considerable dexterity in the use of 
this whip, the lash of which is thrown forward or back 
with a quick turn of the wrist. That portion of the 
lash near the handle strikes the ground first, and then 
the long seal-skin thong unwinds, gaining rapidity and 
strength as the end is reached, and this strikes with 
such force as to make the snow fly, and with a report 
like a pistol. It is not a handy implement, for it re- 
quires time to get in position to swing the long lash. 
First it is thrown back, and then forward — this time for 
execution ; and it is no unusual thing to see a dog with 
an eye gone or a piece of ear missing — a witness to the 
power of the ip-er-ow-ter in the practised hand of the 
Esquimau dog driver. Even the boys are quite skil- 
ful in the use of the whip, and dog driving is taught 
them almost from infancy. The driver sits on the front 
part of the sled or runs alongside, the long lash of the 
whip trailing behind him on the snow, so that when 
occasion occurs calling for the administering of punish- 
ment it is already in the proper position for delivering 
the blow. 

The first effect of the whip is to retard the sled. The 
dog that is struck invariably draws back, and then usu- 
ally pitches upon his neighbor, and for a while there 
is a row that threatens the sled with stoppage. The 
driver usually takes advantage of this occasion to ad- 
minister a general chastisement, each dog receiving a 
share of the punishment, whether guilty of insubordi- 



50 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

nation or not. The Esquimau theory is, that if not 
deserving of the whip this time he would be before 
long, and so might as well receive it now as any time. 

The dogs are attached to the sled by harness made 
of either reindeer or seal-skin. One loop passes around 
the neck, while each leg is lifted through a loop, all 
three Ioojds joining over the back and fastened to a long 
seal-skin line. These lines are of different lengths, so 
as to allow the dogs to pull to greater advantage than 
if all the traces were of the same length, causing the 
dogs to spread out like a fan. At every few miles the 
traces have to be unloosened and extricated from the 
most abominable tangle that it is possible to conceive. 
This comes from a habit the dogs have of constantly 
running under and over the other traces to avoid the 
whip, or in some cases merely from a spirit of pure 
deviltry. 

The leader of the team is a dos; selected for his in- 
telligence, and is one known as setting an example of 
constant industry under all circumstances. You will 
always see the leader of a team of dogs working as 
if the load was being drawn by him alone. He goes 
along, his head bent over and tugging in his harness, 
his mouth open and tongue lolling out, while his ears 
are ever ready to hear the word of command from the 
driver. To go to the left, the command is given, "Ah'- 
root," and to the right, " Why-ah'-wah-ha." Then he 
sometimes, to encourage or urge to greater exertion, 
says, " Ah-wah-hagh-oo-ar." To stop the team he says 
" Woah," as one "says when driving horses. It is the 



OUR DOGS. 51 

noisiest method of travel yet invented, for the driver 
is constantly talking to his team, calling each by name, 
and usually following the word with a blow of the 
whip, so that the next time that dog is spoken to he 
will understand that it means "hurry up." The con- 
versation with a dog team is incessant, and the work of 
the dri-ver is not confined to his team alone. He has 
to constantly keep watch over the front of the sled, to 
turn it to the right or left in order to avoid hummocks 
or stones that would upset the load or tear the ice from 
the bottom of the runners. 

limits are fond of riding on the sled while travelling, 
and as long as there is a spot that would hold one they 
will pile up there. But should there be no place for 
them, they will run alongside without apparent discom- 
fort for almost any length of time or distance. This is 
equally true of the children of both sexes, and when 
any are compelled to walk, for lack of dogs or of room 
on the sled, it is the women and girls who have to give 
way to the men and boys. With a light sled, and from 
nine to fifteen good strong clogs, the Esquimaux of 
North Hudson's Bay will sometimes make a journey of 
from eighty to one hundred miles during the long days 
of spring. A light sled has reference to one with noth- 
ing on it except the skins for the beds, a la?np and 
small quantity of oil, with not more than one or two 
days' rations of food. The same number of dogs will 
drag a sled, with about fifteen hundred pounds of load, 
at the rate of three or four miles an hour over the 
smooth salt-water ice and snow. When travelling with 



52 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

light sleds all the party ride, except when necessary to 
run for the purpose of getting warm. In travelling, and 
especially when starting from a halt, some one runs 
ahead of the team so as to get them to pull together. 
When the sleds are heavily loaded the start is effected 
in the same way, and the driver, gathering the reins in 
his hands, pulls back with all his might until he sees 
every dog straining against his collar, when he lets go 
his hold and all spring forward together. 

It often happens that there are not a sufficient num- 
ber of dogs, or that they are poor and unable to travel 
with sufficient rapidity, and then the people have to 
put on harness and help. First, the women and chil- 
dren engage in this labor, and, lastly, the men. And 
the drivers will sit on the sled and smoke, witli the ut- 
most composure, while their wives and daughters are 
tugging in the harness. The women do not mind this 
treatment, for they are accustomed to it and look upon 
it as the ' proper thing. In the summer the Esquimaux 
use their dogs while travelling as pack animals, and a 
■stranger would be astonished to see what loads these 
dogs will carry. I have seen a fine large dog that 
would carry two saddles of reindeer meat, or the entire 
fore-quarters of two reindeer. His back would be bent 
low beneath the burden he bore, but still he would 
struggle along, panting the while and regarding his 
master with a look of the deepest affection whenever 
he came near him, yet ever ready to fight any other 
dog that got in his way. 

These, then, were the faithful comrades of our march. 






OUR DOGS. 53 

Before the day appointed by Lieutenant Schwatka 
they were ready. We were all eager to start. The 
projected journey was one which more than one expe- 
dition had undertaken without success since Sir Leo- 
pold McClintock's memorable sledge journey, which ac- 
complished so much, and left so much to be desired. We 
were determined to bring it to a successful issue. Our 
igloo life at Camp Daly during the previous winter had 
inured us to the climate, so that, though we often found 
the cold intensely disagreeable, we were free from the 
evil consequences that have assailed many expeditions 
and make Arctic travel so dangerous, though few have 
been exposed to such low temperature as was our party, 
especially during the return trip in the winter of 1879- 
80. Previous sledge journeys had taught us how to 
clothe ourselves and otherwise provide against the cold, 
and we had already become acquainted with Inuit fare, 
so that when the emergency arrived when we were 
compelled to subsist entirely upon such food, we did 
not regard it with that repugnance that those would 
who had not become accustomed to it. In other words, 
we had become thoroughly acclimated during the eight 
months we had already lived in the country. 



CHAPTEE IV. 



1 1ST THE SLEDGES. 



It was eleven o'clock on the morning of the 1st of 
April when the three heavily laden sledges moved out 
from Camp Daly on to the shore ice of Hudson's Bay, 
and commenced the long march toward King William 
Land. Lieutenant Schwatka's preliminary sledge jour- 
ney in the direction of Wager River, during midwinter, 
had determined him upon taking that route, though 
across land entirely unknown either to previous ex- 
plorers or to any natives with whom we had come in 
contact. Whether we would find practicable water- 
courses, such as rivers and lakes, or whether mountain 
ranges would oppose their granite walls to farther prog- 
ress, was yet to be ascertained. Its recommendation 
was that it was the most direct course, and whatever 
obstacles it might present would, when overcome, al- 
ways leave us that much nearer our goal. As we 
reached the smooth salt-water ice, we turned to take 
a last look at Camp Daly, which had been so long our 
home — a comfortless dwelling-place indeed, but for all 
that a home — and I never expect to lose a feeling of 
affection for its barren rocks and forbidding scenery. 

Its snow- clad hills were almost hidden behind the huni- 

54 



ZA r THE SLEDGES. 57 

mocks that everywhere bound the shore and make it a 
difficult undertaking to get on or off the ice at low tide. 
The loaded sledges were making but slow progress as 
they wound through the rough ice, but greatly enliv- 
ened the landscape, Avhich at other times is dreary 
and monotonous in the extreme. The drivers, by voice 
and whip, were urging on their teams; while the dogs 
made the wilderness ring with howls of pain or impa- 
tience. The men were bending their shoulders to the 
task, as the women and children walked ahead and 
coaxed the dogs to greater exertion. It was not diffi- 
cult, as we looked upon this picture, to realize that we 
were at least under way, and the work for which we 
had renounced the comforts of civilization for so long 
a period had at last begun, and our spirits rose with 
the prospect of action. 

It was not Lieutenant Schwatka's intention to make 
a long march this day, but to break loose from camp 
and get well straightened out on our course. Our direc- 
tion was due east until we reached Winchester Inlet, 
where we turned north-north-west and took up our line 
of march upon the frozen waters of the newly-named 
Connery River. The sun was setting when we halted 
about ten miles from Camp Daly and built two igloos, 
one of which was occupied by Toolooah's family and 
the four white men, the other by the remainder of the 
party. After the first night, however, there were al- 
ways three igloos, Joe and Ishmark, his father-in-law, 
building a separate one for themselves and their fam- 
ilies. There was at first some dissatisfaction mani- 



58 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

fested by the limits of the party at the determination 
of our commander to move always with the entire out- 
fit, whenever practicable, and never to make portages 
or, in other words, transport a portion of the loads 
ahead before moving on with the remainder, unless ab- 
solutely forced so to do, and experience demonstrated 
the wisdom of his decision. Inuits always prefer to 
move by portages when they have heavy loads and 
plenty of food on the sledges, and such had been the 
custom on all the previous sledge journeys made by 
"Esquimau Joe " in company with white men. He par- 
ticularly was anxious to travel in that way, but Lieu- 
tenant Schwatka was resolute, and many days and many 
dogs were saved to us thereby. 

The party was composed of four white men, Lieu- 
tenant Frederick Schwatka, United States Army, com-, 
mander; W. H, Gilder, second in command; Henry W. 
Klutschak, and Frank Melms, with thirteen Inuits, as 
follows : " Esquimau Joe," interpreter ; Neepshark, 
his wife; Toolooah, dog driver and hunter; Toolooah- 
elek, his wife, and one child ; Equeesik (Natchillik 
Inuit), dog driver and hunter ; Kutcheenuark, his wife, 
and one child ; Ishmark, Karleko, his wife, Koomana, 
their son, aged about thirteen, and Mit-colelee and 
Owanork, Equeesik's brothers, aged respectively about 
twenty and thirteen. The sleds were drawn by forty- 
two dogs, accumulated by hard work, persistent effort, 
and overpowering liberality with regard to guns, am- 
munition, and other articles of trade. The loads aggre- 
gated about five thousand pounds on the day of start- 






IN THE SLEDGE 8. 59 

ing ; but a large part of this consisting of walrus meat, 
both for dogs and people they were materially lightened 
from day to day. Our provisions besides the walrus 
meat comprised — 



Lbs. 

Hard bread 500 

Pork 200 

Compressed corned-beef., . . 200 

Corn starch 80 

Oleomargarine 40 



Lbs. 

Cheese 40 

Coffee 40 

Tea 5 

Molasses 20 



This, it will be seen, is only about one month's 
rations of civilized food for seventeen people, and was, 
in fact, nearty exhausted by the time we reached King 
William Land. Our main dependence was, therefore, 
the game of the country through which we were travel- 
ling, a contingency upon which we had calculated and 
were willing to rely, having full faith in the superior 
quality of the arms and ammunition with which we 
had been so liberally equipped by American manufac- 
turers. It is well for us that our faith was well founded, 
for there can scarcely be a doubt that it was this that 
made our expedition possible. In all other respects we 
were probably in a much worse condition than any pre- 
vious expedition ; but the quality of our arms put us at 
once upon a footing to derive all the benefit possible from 
the game of the country, a benefit of which we availed 
ourselves, as the unparalleled score of 522 reindeer, be- 
sides musk oxen, polar bears and seals will show. This is 
what was killed by our party from the time we left Camp 
Daly until our return. The quality of our provisions 



60 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

was excellent, and it was only deficient in quantity. 
The Inuits shared our food with us as long as it lasted, 
and, indeed, that was one of the inducements to accom- 
pany us on the journey. Some of the compressed corned- 
beef, corn starch, and cheese was reserved for the use of 
detached search parties on King William Land, as being 
the most condensed form of nutriment among our 
stores, and even that was shared with the Inuits who 
accompanied us during the search. Late in the after- 
noon of the second day's march we left Connery River, 
after crossing, with much difficulty, three rapids where 
the ice was piled up from fifteen to twenty feet high. 
The Connery was abandoned here on account of its 
direct westerly bearing, and we moved across land to 
the Lorillard River, which we reached about noon of 
the 4th. This gave us several days good travelling in 
a northerly direction, when we again took the land, and 
moved somewhat to the eastward in order to avoid the 
Hazard Hills, which Lieutenant Schwatka discovered 
in his preliminary sledge journey. He found that range 
exceedingly precipitous, and so devoid of snow upon its 
summit as to materially impede our progress were we 
compelled to force a passage that way. 

We witnessed a most peculiar and interesting spec- 
tacle on the 8th, in what appeared to be a frozen water- 
fall, about twenty-five feet in height, where a branch 
seemed to flow into the Lorillard from the west. At a 
distance it looked like a mountain torrent which had 
been arrested in its progress by some mighty hand and 
transformed into stone. Its ripples of crystals gleamed 



IN THE SLEDGES. 61 

in the sunlight, and sparkled as if studded with myriads 
of gems. After enjoying its varied beauties for some 
time, I climbed to the top of the bank to make a closer 
inspection of it. Tracing its course for a short distance 
from the shore, I found a shallow brook which had 
frozen in a level place at the top of the hill, forcing the 
water to the right and left until it spread in a thin 
sheet over the face of the rock for a space of about fifty 
feet in breadth. Successive layers of ice were thus 
formed, and this novel and beautiful effect produced. 
The first few days of our journey were excessively 
fatiguing. The sleds were heav}^ and we often had to 
put on our harness and help the dogs over a ridge or 
through a deep drift. We had not yet become hard- 
ened, and consequently experienced much difficulty from 
blistered feet and charing ; but as we got rid of our super- 
fluous flesh these petty troubles became less annoying, 
and we did not so easily become fatigued from walking. 
During the afternoon of the 12th we came suddenly 
upon a herd of reindeer, and the hunters killed three of 
them. The sleds then moved on and we went into 
camp in the vicinity of the carcasses, in order to get 
them in and cut up before dark. Soon we saw another 
smaller herd running over the hills pursued by five 
wolves, which we could hear howling at intervals dur- 
ing the evening until we went to sleep. That night 
they came into camp close to the igloos, and Toolooah, 
who always sleeps with one eye and one ear open, heard 
the dogs giving a peculiar low bark, with which they 
announce the presence of wolves. We had a box of 



62 SCHWATKA'M SEARCH. 

Coston night signals close at hand in the igloo, and, 
knowing that a light frightens them away, made a 
small hole in the igloo and thrust out a " distress " sig- 
nal with the most brilliant result. Toolooah was already 
dressed and outside the igloo as the light started, and 
said the wolves stopped and looked at it for a second 
and then fled in dismay, each change of color in the 
signal light seeming to lend additional wings to their 
flying feet. We saw them prowling around during the 
next day's march, but they kept at a respectful dis- 
tance. During our entire trip the Coston signals served 
us a good purpose in keeping the wolves from our 
doors, though I don't remember that the prospectus 
mentioned this application as one of the advantages of 
keeping the signals on hand. 

On the 14th of April the thermometer rose above 
the freezing-point in the middle of the day for the first 
time, and as we remained in camp while the hunters 
went ahead to pick out a better road, we gladly em- 
braced the opportunity to dry our stockings. It is one 
of the greatest discomforts of Arctic travel that the ex- 
ercise of walking wets one's fur stockings with perspi- 
ration. At night they freeze, and it is anything but 
an agreeable sensation to put bare feet into stockings 
filled with ice, which is a daily experience in winter 
travelling. But it is astonishing how soon one gets ac- 
.customed to that sort of thing, and how little he minds 
it after a while. The warmth of the feet soon thaws 
the ice, and then a wet stocking is nearly as warm as a 
dry one, except in the wind. During the next day we 



IN THE SLEDGES. 



63 



were passing through a high rolling country, but with 
plenty of snow and not bad sledging. We found the 
descent of the hills always greater than the ascent, and 
presumed that we were approaching the bed of Wager 
River, as our route crossed the lower branch of that 
river, as mapped, well down toward the fork. The 
slope of these hills was usually so steep that we had to 
take the dogs off the sledges and let them run down 




DOWN-HIM, WITH THE SJ7EUGES 



upon the lakes by gravity. This was an exciting but 
not very dangerous method of travelling. So rapid 
would be the descent, that we had all we could do to 
hold on to the sleds trying to retard their progress. 
Some would be taking steps ten feet long, while others, 
with their feet planted straight out before them, were 
ploughing up the snow and scattering it in every direc- 
tion. The dogs followed behind the sleds, running and 



64 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

barking, some of thein, entangled in their harness, roll- 
ing over and dragged along by their swifter comrades. 
We were gratified to see plenty of reindeer nearly every 
day, as it relieved our anxiety concerning our commis- 
sariat. The ice upon the fresh-water lakes where we 
encamped averaged about six and a half feet. An oc- 
casional salmon is caught through the water hole by 
one of the women, who usually drop a line in after the 
hole is made. 

The sun for the last three clays had been insufferably 
hot, and my forehead and face were blistered painfully. 
It was altogether a new experience to have my nose 
blistered on one side by the sun, and on the other by a 
frost-bite. During my first winter in this country my 
nose was particularly tender. I could scarcely go out 
of doors without having it nipped. There is no pain 
in a frost-bite, but the cold upon my nose would cause 
me much suffering when first exposed to it, without 
exciting the least sympathy in my companions; but 
just as it would begin to feel comfortable once more, 
some one would run up and tell me, " Tling-yack quark " 
(Nose frozen), at the same time pressing a warm hand 
against it to thaw it out. The person who has the 
frozen nose is almost invariably surprised when in- 
formed of the fact. During winter travel people always 
have each other's noses and cheeks in charge, and one 
readily acquires the habit of occasionally taking hold 
of his nose, especially Avhen it feels comfortable, to see 
if it is frozen. The frost-bite is at once detected by 
a white, wax-like patch, with edges sharply defined 



IW THE SLEDGES- 65 

against the rudely color of the healthy flesh. When 
you touch it, it feels cold and hard, and as if you had 
hold of somebody else's nose. It thaws readily, and 
without further inconvenience, under the pressure of a 
warm finger, unless it has been frozen for a long time. 
Daring the second winter, though exposed to an inten- 
sity of cold that is seldom encountered, it was seldom 
that I had a frozen nose or cheek. No serious frost 
bites occurred to any of our party, and I noticed that 
the Inuits suffered from the cold quite as much as the 
white men. The skin invariably comes off the frozen 
part within a few days, even when only slightly nipped. 
The consequence was that my nose was constantly 
peeling, and at all times as tender as an infant's. Now 
that the freezing days were about over, it began to peel 
from sunburn. I don't know how many layers of skin 
were thus removed, but more than I could account for, 
unless a man's nose is like an onion. 

The sun was now having a very perceptible effect 
upon the snow, even when the black rocks began to 
peep up through the surface, and great patches of moss 
could be seen completely bare. The great bugbear of 
sledge travelling is stony ground, or a hidden rock be- 
neath a thin layer of snow that cuts through and 
sweeps the ice from the runners before the sled can be 
stopped. When the ice is gone from the runners all 
comfort has gone with it. The sled that the dogs 
would drag without apparent difficulty suddenly seems 
to weigh tons. All hands in harness and pulling like 
slaves cannot accomplish more than two miles an hour. 



66 



SCHWA TEA'S SEA R OH. 



The ice is put upon the runners the first thing in the 
morning when coming out of the igloo. The sled is 
turned upside down, and the water, after being held 
in the mouth a little while to warm it, is squirted over 
the runners and freezes almost immediately in a tem- 
perature below zero. In this way successive layers are 




HUNTING MUSK-OXEN. 



applied until a clean, smooth surface is acquired, upon 
which the sled slips over the snow with comparative 
ease. Now, the ice was usually all off the sleds by 
noon, and progress was slow and laborious. 

We got an observation on the 21st at noon, which 
showed us our latitude to be 65 deg. 45 min. north, 
agreeing closely with Lieutenant Schwatka's dead reck- 



IN THE SLEDGES. 67 

oning. This, according to the chart, would put us on 
the north bank of Wager River; but as yet we had seen 
no signs of it, nor did we subsequently see anything 
that looked like such river. This can be accounted for 
by the presumption that the survey was made during 
the early summer, when the lakes are full, and some of 
the valleys connecting them may have contained water 
enough to float a boat. Before winter these might dry 
up and leave only a series of disconnected lakes. Fresh 
musk-ox tracks were seen on the 27th, and on the 29th 
we lay over to hunt some that Equeesik had seen after 
coming into camp on the 28th. After a chase of about 
three miles we succeeded in killing four, which com- 
pleted our musk-ox score, as we saw no more either in 
going to or coming from King William Land. May 3d, 
we found water at a depth of eight feet, and on the 6th 
had to dig through eight and a half feet. This was the 
thickest ice we saw of one winter's formation. About 
noon of the 7th we ran into a herd of fourteen rein- 
deer, lying down upon a hillside, and in less than three- 
quarters of an hour ten of them lay dead upon the field, 
and I believe those who got away carried some lead 
with them. Lieutenant Schwatka, who remained with 
the sleds, said that when the firing began it sounded 
for a while like a sharp battle, so rapidly and inces- 
santly were the shots delivered. It clearly illustrates 
the advantage of breech-loaders and magazine guns 
when game is plentiful and much is required. 

The next day a storm kept us in camp, but on the 9th 
we pulled out again and found the sledging in a most 



68 SCHWATKA' 8 SEARCH. 

wretched condition. The country was very hilly and 
the snow entirely gone in many places, so that it occa- 
sioned much halting and considerable trouble to pick 
out a route by which the sled could move at all. 
About noon, however, we were rejoiced by reaching the 
head of a small river or creek by a perilous flying switch 
down a very long and steep hill. One of the sleds was 
overthrown, but fortunately it sustained no material 
damage, and was soon righted and landed on the ice 
below. One more flying run and we were safe upon 
the river. We had to congratulate ourselves upon the 
good fortune by which we discovered this river, for the 
land was getting more rugged all the time, and we be- 
gan to fear that the snow, which was disappearing very 
rapidly, would soon be in such a condition that we 
could not travel at all, and we be left so near and get 
beyond reach of our destination. The range of hills 
from which we descended to the river was from eight 
hundred to a thousand feet high and their peaks en- 
tirely denuded of snow. Lieutenant Schwatka decided 
to keep to the river under all circumstances, though at 
present it was impossible to tell whether it was the 
Castor and Pollux or a branch of Back's River. It 
proved to be the latter, and quite an important branch, 
which we followed for upward of ninety miles, leaving 
it only when it turned due south and at a right angle to 
our course. The entire length is 110 or 120 miles. It 
empties into Cockburn Bay, on the eastern shore of 
Back's River. Lieutenant Schwatka named it Hayes 
River, in honor of the President. On the 11th of May 



IN THE SLEDGES. 



71 



we killed seven reindeer, and on the 13th nine. The 
country seems to be filled with game, and nearly every 
day we saw two or three large herds. Our dogs get well 
fed, and are really in finer condition than when we left 
Camp Daly. We had the misfortune to lose one of our 
best dogs, Toekelegeto, Toolooah's leader, on the night 




THE SOURCES OF THE HATES RIVER. 



of the 13th, who choked to death with a piece of bone 
in his throat. He had eaten a piece of the shoulder- 
blade of the reindeer, which is thin and breaks into fine 
splinters. The Inuits usually hide this bone in the 
snow, as they say such accidents are frequent, especially 
when the dogs eat rapidly, as they always do when 
there is a number together. 



72 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

The northern shore of the river is here bounded by 
high hills — in fact, almost a mountain range, and as I 
walked along the crest on the 14th, the sleds moving 
along the river at my feet looked like toys. Inland I 
could see the rocky hills piled together, barren and for- 
bidding, and I could not help feeling grateful that we 
had found so good a road out of this country, for it 
would have been next to impossible to have crossed 
these ridges with our heavy sledges. About noon Ave 
came upon a freshly cut block of snow turned up on end, 
an unmistakable indication that natives had been there 
within two or three days, and a little farther on fresh 
footprints in the snow led us to a cache of musk-ox 
meat, and near by a deserted igloo. Equeesik knew by 
these signs that we were in the Ooqueesik-Sillik country, 
and as the natives never go far from Back's River, or 
the Ooqueesik-Sillik, as is the Esquimau name, this was 
joyful news and we were all excitement at the prospect 
of speedily meeting the natives. We followed the 
tracks upon the ice, and could see that they had used 
dogs to drag a musk-ox skin for a sled. This is a usual 
mode of travel with these people, who have very little 
wood with which to make sledges. Their supply con- 
sists entirely of drift-wood, with the exception of the 
material they obtained from the small boats of the 
Erebus and Terror, two of which were found on Ade- 
laide Peninsula and two on King William Land. 




U-^ni'imaux Settlement 



^ r 




MC KINNEY'S"? 

PEAK ^j^^sJV^ 



THE LOWER PORTION OF 

BACK'S OR GEEAT PISH EIVEE. 

SCALE OF GEOQ. MILES 
12 3450 10 15 20 25 

BY H. W. KXUTSCHAK. 

The red' line shoics the journey northward, the blue line the 
return; the numbers similarly colored show tlie numbers of the 
camping places. The names in parentlieses aretlie Esquimaux 
designations. jj* 



CHAPTER V. 



NATIVE WITNESSES. 



We left camp at lialf-past seven in the morning of 
the 15th, a sharp wind blowing in our faces. We had 
not gone far when the dogs began to prick up their 
ears, and finally started off on a brisk run, barking and 
manifesting great excitement. The limits at once 
attributed this unwonted energy on the part of the 
dogs to the fact that there were people not far distant, 
and, sure enough, we soon saw several igloos about 
three-quarters of a mile ahead, with poles sticking in 
the snow around them — an evidence that they were 
inhabited. The sleds were now halted, and prepara- 
tions made to open communication with the strangers. 
The Inuits of our party, especially Ishnark and Joe, 
were very much frightened, and said the people we 
were about to meet were as warlike as the Netchilliks, 
and always wanted to fight when they met strangers. 
They were somewhat reassured when their attention 
was called to the immense advantage we had over them 
with our breech-loaders and magazine guns against their 
bows and spears. In accordance with the custom of 
the country, the Inuits armed themselves with snow- 
knives and spears, while the white men carried their 

73 



74 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

rifles or revolvers. All the men and boys then ad- 
vanced toward the igloos, but not a soul was to be 
seen. Two or three dogs ran out and barked and then 
ran to where the sleds were halted, the women and 
children cowering down behind them. When within 
about three hundred yards of the camp our party 
halted, while Equeesik and Ishnark went a few paces 
further and began shouting something, which I after- 
ward learned was Equeesik's name, with which they 
were acquainted, and announcing the fact that there 
were white men with our party. Presently one man 
crawled timidly out of the doorway of an igloo and 
asked a question, which must have been satisfactorily 
answered, for others soon followed and arranged them- 
selves alongside of him ; then all of them shouted an 
invitation to advance, whereupon we approached, and 
conversation between the Inuits became general. We 
were objects of great curiosity to the strangers, most 
of whom now saw white men for the first time. It 
seems that when they first saw us they thought we were 
Netckilliks, and were in consequence very much fright- 
ened, so that while some of our people were dreading 
an encounter, these poor creatures were shaking in 
their shoes and afraid to come out of their igloos. 
They all carried knives in their hands, but as weapons 
they might as well have carried nothing. Most of 
them were bits of hoop-iron or copper, worked down 
to a blade, and fastened upon long handles of reindeer 
horn. 

There were in the party nine men, nearly all belong- 




'US 1 ' 

HI 



■1 

ill' ' 



NATIVE WITNESSES. 77 

ing to the immediate family of an old man, who acted 
as spokesman. He said he was an Ookjoolik, but 
he and others had been driven from their country 
by their more numerous and warlike neighbors the 
Netchilliks. His family comprised nearly all that was 
left of the tribe which formerly occupied the western 
coast of Adelaide Peninsula and King William Land. 
We concluded to encamp with them, and get what 
information we could from them concerning our mate 
and the Franklin ships. We were fortunate in finding 
the old man, an interesting and important witness. 
" Esquimau Joe," Ishnark, and Equeesik acted as inter- 
preters, and through them we learned that these people 
were in great distress for food. The musk-ox we saw 
cached was all the meat they had in hand, or had had 
for a long time. An old man of their tribe had starved 
to death about a month before our arrival. We gave 
them some reindeer meat, of which we fortunately had 
plenty on the sleds, and told them where they would 
find the carcass of a reindeer that one of our party had 
killed the day before and left on the field because the 
sleds were too far off to wait for it. Their clothing 
was in a dilapidated condition, though originally well 
made, and instead of reindeer gloves and shoes, they 
wore articles made of musk-ox skin, which had a most 
extraordinary effect. The hair of the musk-ox is sev- 
eral inches long, and it looked as if they had an old- 
fashioned inuff on each hand. They were very good 
natured and friendly, however, and helped to build our 
igloos and make them comfortable. We obtained from 



78 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

them a few trifling relics of the Erebus and Terror, in 
exchange for knives and needles, which made them 
happy. It seemed strange to me that they should be 
hungry in a country swarming with reindeer, but our 
people explained to me that in winter it is almost im- 
possible to get near enough to reindeer ; to kill them 
with arrows, which are their only weapons. In sum- 
mer they kill a few reindeer from their kyacks, or skin 
canoes, while crossing the big lakes on their migrations. 
The Netchilliks also kill a few reindeer in this way. 
In the summer and fall these people catch great quan- 
tities of salmon and cow-e-sil-lik, a species of fish 
peculiar to this country, and in the neighboring hills 
kill a few musk-oxen. Their main dependence, how- 
ever, is upon fish from Back's and Harris's rivers. 

From Ikinnelikpatolok, the old Ookjoolik, we learned 
at the interview that he had only once seen white 
men alive. That was when he was a little boy. He is 
now about sixty-five or seventy. He was fishing on 
Back's River when they came along in a boat and 
shook hands with him. There were ten men. The 
leader was called " Tos-ard-e-roak," which Joe says, 
from the sound, he thinks means Lieutenant Back. 
The next white man he saw was dead in a bunk of a 
big ship which was frozen in the ice near an island 
about five miles due west of Grant Point, on Adelaide 
Peninsula. They had to walk out about three miles 
on smooth ice to reach the ship. He said that his son, 
who was present, a man about thirty-five years old, was 
then about like a child he pointed out — probably 



NATIVE WITNESSES. 79 

seven or eight years old. About this time he saw the 
tracks of white men on the main-land. When he first 
saw them there were four, and afterward only three. 
This was when the spring snows were falling. When his 
people saw the ship so long without any one around, 
they used to go on board and steal pieces of wood and 
iron. They did not know how to get inside by the 
doors, and cut a hole in the side of the ship, on a level 
with the ice, so that when the ice broke up during the 
following summer the ship filled and sunk. No tracks 
were seen in the salt-water ice or on the ship, which 
also was covered with snow, but they saw scrapings 
and sweepings alongside, which seemed to have been 
brushed off by people who had been living on 
board. They found some red cans of fresh meat, with 
plenty of what looked like tallow mixed with it. A 
great many had been opened, and four were still un- 
opened. They saw no bread. They found plenty of 
knives, forks, spoons, pans, cups, and plates on board, 
and afterward found a few such things on shore after 
the vessel had gone down. They also saw books on 
board, and left them there. They only took knives, 
forks, spoons, and pans ; the other things they had no 
use for. He never saw or heard of the white men's 
cairn on Adelaide Peninsula. 

Peowat, son-in-law of the previous witness, a man 
about forty, said that when about fourteen or fifteen 
years old he saw two boats come down Back's River. 
One had eight men in it, and the other he did not no- 
tice how many. He afterward saw a stone monument 



80 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

on Montreal Island, which, when he opened it, was 
found to contain a pocket-knife, a pair of scissors, and 
some fish-hooks, which he took away. He saw no 
papers anywhere about it. 

We remained in this camp two days and a half, and 
before we left engaged a young man named Narleyow 
to accompany us as guide and seal hunter. His wife, 
Innokpizookzook, and their child, a little girl about 
three years old, also went with us. Our new hunter 
was given a gun and ammunition, and placed in the 
care of Equeesik to instruct in the use of fire-arms. I 
noticed that these people have slightly fairer com- 
plexions than the natives of Hudson's Bay, and the 
women are somewhat more elaborately tattooed, de- 
spite which they are quite comely. The children are 
all remarkably pretty, but the men have a ghastly look 
from wearing wooden goggles to guard against snow 
blindness, which makes the skin around the eyes, where 
protected by the goggles, several shades lighter than 
the rest of their face. 

We reached Back's River in four more marches, two 
of which were on the Hayes River, and two on land, 
crossing from the great bend to avoid the detour that 
otherwise we would be compelled to make. We were 
compelled to remain in camp one day, while on the land, 
on account of a severe storm. The day we reached 
Back's River was also one of the most disagreeable days 
we marched, and it was a joyful sight to us, after nearly 
two months' travelling over an entirely unknown coun- 
try, to find ourselves within easy reach of our destina- 




THE NETCHILLIK AMBASSADRESS. 



NATIVE WITNESSES. 83 

tion. It seemed as if nothing now conld prevent the 
accomplishment of our desire. As long as we were de- 
pendent upon the snow the prospect was growing more 
and more dubious ; but with the salt-water ice beneath 
us, we felt assured of reaching our destination in due 
season. We remained one day at Montreal Island, to 
look for the remains of the cairn spoken of by Peowat, 
but every trace of it had been removed, as he said. 

The day we left Montreal Island two seals were 
killed, which were the first since leaving Hudson's Bay. 
We found the distance from the north-east end of the 
island much less than mapped, and went into camp well 
up the coast, after killing three reindeer. We again 
took the land, crossing the Oyle Point and Richardson 
Point peninsulas, which we found much wider than 
mapped. In an inlet west of Richardson Point, or 
" Nu-oo-tar-ro," as it is known by the natives, we ran 
into the first of the Netchillik encampments, on the last 
day of May. The ceremony of opening communication 
was similar to that with the Ooquee-sik-silliks a few 
days before, with the exception that instead of remain- 
ing in their igloos the men were drawn up in line of 
battle in front of them, and sent out an old woman to 
find out who we were and what we wanted. If our 
designs had been hostile, and we had killed the old wo- 
man, their fighting strength would not have been re- 
duced, and it would only have been one less old woman 
to care for. They carried their bows in their hands, 
with arrows fixed to the strings ; but when the old wo- 
man shouted back that we were white men, they laid 



84 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

aside their arms and received us in a friendly manner, 
striking their breasts and saying, " Many-tu-me," though 
Joe afterward told me that one of the men wanted a 
fight anyhow. They have a custom of killing the 
first stranger who comes among them after a death in 
the tribe, and as we filled that requirement, it seems he 
wanted to carry out the custom. At Equeesik's sugges- 
tion a gun had been discharged in the air as we ap- 
proached, and it is probable that the knowledge that 
we were better armed than they had some effect in se- 
curing peace. They acted in quite a friendly manner 
after we came among them, and Lieutenant Schwatka 
and I visited all their igloos, leaving needles, thimbles, 
spoons, knives, and fish-hooks with them in exchange 
for a few unimportant Franklin relics. The next day 
we interviewed an old man named Seeuteetuar, who 
had seen a number of skeletons near the water line in 
an inlet about three or four miles west from the present 
camp. He had also seen books and papers scattered 
around among the rocks along the shore and back from 
the beach. There were also knives, forks and spoons, 
dishes and cans. There was no sled there, but there 
was a boat, which was afterward broken up and taken 
away by the natives, with which to manufacture wooden 
implements. He was shown a watch, and said he saw 
several like it lying around, which were also taken and 
broken up by the children. Some were silver and some 
gold. He said the bones were still there, unless carried 
oif by foxes and wolves. He had never seen or heard 
of a cairn erected by white men along the coast on this 



NATIVE WITNESSES. 85 

side of Simpson Strait, and had never heard of any 
other traces of white men here, It was a long time 
since he had been there, but he could show us the spot. 

Toolooah, another NetchilHk, about forty-five years 
old, had also been at the boat place, but after nearly 
everything had been removed. He had, however, seen 
traces of white men in the Ookjoolik country, on the 
western coast of Adelaide Peninsula, and as late as 
last summer had picked up pieces of bottles, iron, wood 
and tin cans on an island off Grant Point. Ookjoolik 
natives had pointed out this island as a place near 
which a ship had been sunk many years ago. A map 
was shown to him, and he pointed to a spot about 
eight miles due west of Grant Point as the place where 
the ship went down. Ooping, an Ookjoolik Inuit, who 
lived near the mouth of a big inlet that extends nearly 
across Adelaide Peninsula, from the head of Wilmot 
Bay, was the last Esquimau who had gone over the 
west coast of King William Land. This was two years 
ago. He had seen traces of white men near Cape Jane 
Franklin and along the coast of Cape Felix. This in- 
let, spoken of by Toolooah, seemed of sufficient impor- 
tance to deserve surveying, and Lieutenant Schwatka 
decided to include it in the search of the Ookjoolik 
country. 

The sun exerted sufficient power during the middle 
of the day to bring our igloo down ; but we had fin- 
ished our interviewing and were ready to visit the cove 
where the boat and skeletons had been found. One 
light sled, with plenty of dogs, took us over, with 



86 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

Seeuteetuar and Toolooah as guides, and our Toolooah 
as driver. We found the place about three miles from 
camp, and, though the ground was nearly all covered 
with snow, and nothing whatever distinguished it from 
the coast on either side, we could not but be impressed 
by the mournful interest with which the sad fate of 
the lost explorers invested it. To our minds there 
seemed little doubt but that this was the farthest point 
in the direction of Hudson's Bay that any of them had 
reached. The party was a small one, and had, proba- 
bly, been sifted down to the few hardiest men, whose 
anticipation of rescue from the horrible death that 
awaited them had not faltered under all their terrible 
sufferings while they had the continent in view. It 
probably seemed that if they could only reach the main- 
land they would be comparatively safe. But even the 
bravest hearts must have sunk — and that there were 
many brave hearts among them cannot be doubted, when 
the awful desolation of this country forced itself upon 
them. No more powerful picture of utter abandonment 
could possibly be devised than this. The land low and 
barren, so low, indeed, as to be scarcely distinguished 
from the sea, as both lay covered with their mantle of 
snow. Neither tree nor sprout, and scarcely a hill visi- 
ble — nothing whatever to relieve the crushing monotony 
of the scene — no living thing to be seen anywhere, 
though the eye had uninterrupted range over so vast a 
territory. Even a wolf prowling around would have 
been a relief in the utter loneliness that oppressed them. 
All this presented itself to our minds as we looked 



NATIVE WITNESSES. 89 

around but saw no traces of the lost ones. Had we 
known at this time what we learned a few days later, 
the place would have had an additional interest as the 
spot where the records of the expedition, which had 
been brought thus far with infinite toil and care, had 
been irrecoverably lost. We marked the spot care- 
fully, for a thorough search when the snow was off the 
ground, and returned to camp. Our guides informed us 
that the boat was found upside down on the beach, and 
all the skeletons beneath it. They did not remember 
the exact number, but thought there were about five or 
more. 

That night Equeesik learned from two natives who 
came in late that his sister was with another portion of 
the tribe near Richardson Point, and went there with 
his sled, returning the next day but one with several 
families, including an old woman whom we found to 
be another important and interesting witness. She was 
one of a party who met some of the survivors of the 
ill-fated ships on Washington Bay. Since then she 
had seen no white man until now. Her name was 
Ahlangyah, a Netchillik, about fifty=five years of age. 
She had a fine intelligent face, and a quantity of jet 
black hair, slightly tinged with gray, that had jorobably 
never been annoyed by any efforts at arrangement, and 
hung down over her shoulders or straggled over her 
face without reserve or molestation. I succeeded during 
the interview in getting a very characteristic portrait 
of her, the authenticity of which was subsequently at- 
tested when I had forgotten her name and her friends 



90 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

at once identified her by the portrait. It is but fair to 
state that we have reason to put great faith in the 
statements of these people, as truthfulness seems to be 
an inherent quality with them. They never attempted 
to deceive us in regard to relics, though perhaps it 
would seem easy and profitable. In many instances 
what appeared to us to be interesting relics they told 
us came from the natives of Repulse Bay and else- 
where. 

Ahlangyah pointed out the eastern coast of Washing- 
ton Bay as the spot where she, in company with her 
husband, and two other men with their wives, had seen 
ten white men dragging a sledge with a boat on it many 
years ago. There was another Inuit with them who did 
not go near the white men. The sledge was on the ice, 
and a wide crack separated them from the white men 
at the interview. The women went on shore, and the 
men awaited the white people at the crack on the ice. 
Five of the white men put up a tent on the shore, and 
five remained with the boat on the ice. The limits put 
up a tent not far from the white men, and they stayed 
together here five days. During this time the Inuits 
killed a number of seals on the ice and gave them to 
the white men. They gave her husband a chopping- 
knif e. He was the one who had the most intercourse 
with the white crew. The knife is now lost, or broken 
and worn out. She has not seen it for a long time. At 
the end of five days they all started for Adelaide Pen- 
insula, fearing that the ice, which was very rotten, might 
not let them across. They started at night, because 



NATIVE WITNESSES. 91 

then, the sun being low, the ice would be a little frozen. 
The white men followed, dragging their heavy sledge 
and boat, and could not cross the rotten ice as fast as 
the Inuits, who halted and waited for them at Glad- 
man's Point. The Inuits could not cross to the main- 
land, the ice was too rotten, and they remained in King 
William Land all summer. They never saw the white 
men again, though they waited at Gladman's Point fish- 
ing in the neighboring lakes, going back and forth be- 
tween the shore and lakes nearly all summer, and then 
went to the eastern shore near Matty Island. 

Some of the white men were very thin, and their 
mouths were dry and hard and black. They had no 
fur clothing on. When asked if she remembered by 
what names the white men were called, she said one of 
them was called " Agloocar," and another " Toolooah." 
The latter seemed to be the chief, and it was he who 
gave the chopping-knife to her husband. (Agloocar 
and Toolooah are both common Esquimau names, and 
it is probable the names she heard the white men call 
resembled these in sound, and thus impressed them- 
selves upon her mind.) Another one was called " Dok- 
took " (Doctor). " Toolooah " was a little older than 
the others, and had a large black beard, mixed with 
gray. He was bigger than any of the others — " a big, 
broad man." "Agloocar" was smaller, and had a 
brown beard about four or five inches below his chin 
(motioning with her hand). " Dok-took " was a short 
man, with a big stomach and red beard, about the same 
length as " Agloocar's." All three wore spectacles, not 



92 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

snow goggles, but, as the interpreters said, all the same 
seko (ice). 

The following spring, when there was little snow on 
the ground, she saw a tent standing on the shore at the 
head of Terror Bay. There were dead bodies in the 
tent, and outside were some covered over with sand. 
There was no flesh on them — nothing but the bones and 
clothes. There were a great many ; she had forgotten 
how many. Indeed, Inuits have little idea of numbers 
beyond " ten." She saw nothing to indicate any of the 
party she met before. The bones had the chords or 
sinews still attached to them. One of the bodies had 
the flesh on, but this one's stomach was gone. There 
were one or two graves outside. They did not open the 
graves at this time; saw a great many things lying 
around. There were knives, forks, spoons, watches, 
many books, clothing, blankets, and such things. The 
books were not taken notice of. This was the same 
party of Esquimaux who had met the white men the 
year before, and they were the first who saw the tent 
and graves. They had been in King William Land 
ever since they saw the white men until they found the 
tent place. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE MIDNIGHT SUJST. 



Stjch was the statement of Ahlangyah the Net- 
ckillik. When she had finished it we gave her some 
needles, spoons, a tin pan, and other articles that well 
repaid her for the trouble she had taken to reach ns. 
Here was a woman who had actually seen the poor, 
starving explorers, and her story was replete with in- 
terest for us. Every word she uttered seemed fraught 
with the dread tragedy, and she appeared to share our 
interest, for her face was full of expression. At times 
it was saddened with the recital of the piteous condi- 
tion of the white men, and tears filled her eyes as she 
recalled the sad scene at the tent place where so many 
had perished, and their bodies become food for wild 
beasts. It would seem, from what she related to-day, 
that the party which perished in the inlet we visited 
yesterday, was part of the same that Ahlangyah met on 
King William Land. She and her friends could not 
get across Simpson Strait, while the white men kept on 
over the rotten ice, probably at last compelled to take 
to their boat, and then, at the mercy of the wind and 
ice, after losing others of their number near Pfeffer 

River and Todd Islands, had drifted into the inlet 

93 



94 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

where the dead bodies were found with the boat. How 
long it took them to reach this place will probably 
never be known, but there is little doubt that they were 
in a desperate condition. In fact, as we subsequently 
learned from other witnesses, there were almost unmis- 
takable evidences of their being compelled to resort to 
cannibalism, until at last they absolutely starved to 
death at this point — at least all but one, whose re- 
mains were found, during; the summer after our visit 
here, about five miles further inland. 

We secured one valuable relic here, in the sled seen 
by Sir Leopold McClintock, in Erebus Bay, which at 
that time had upon it a boat, with several skeletons in- 
side. Since the sled came into the hands of the limits 
it has been cut down several times. It was originally 
seven feet longer than at present, the runners about two 
inches higher and twice as far apart. But even in its 
present state it is an exceedingly interesting memento. 
We have carefully preserved it in the condition in 
which it has been in constant use by the Esquimaux for 
many years. We met other portions of this tribe at in- 
tervals of from six to ten miles along this coast, until we 
reached Seaforth Point, where we crossed to King Wil- 
liam Land, and left them behind until our return in the 
following September. 

Meanwhile we were pushing steadily onward. We 
were beginning to get used to the phenomena of the 
Arctic, not the least among which is the " midnight 
sun." It is difficult for one who has not witnessed it 
himself to understand the meaning of this portent. The 



THE MIDNIGHT SUN 95 

idea of the long Arctic night seems to be much more 
generally comprehended. Nearly all writers upon the 
subject, whether those who have themselves experi- 
enced its effects, or those whose knowledge is derived 
from study, dwell with great force on the terribly de- 
pressing effect upon the physical organization of natives 
of the median zones caused by the long Arctic night 
whenever brought within its influence. Though much 
less has been written or said concerning the intermi- 
nable day, its effects are almost as deleterious upon the 
stranger as the prolonged night. Indeed, to the so- 
journer in high latitudes the day is much more appreci- 
able, for at no point yet visited by man is the darkless 
the total darkness of night throughout the entire day, 
while the " midnight sun " makes the night like noon- 
day. Even when the sun passes below the horizon at 
its upper culmination, the daylight is as intense as at 
noon in lower latitudes when the sun's disk is obscured 
by thin clouds. The long twilight in the north, where 
the sun's apparent path around the earth varies so little 
in altitude at its upper and lower culminations, takes 
some of the edge off of the prolonged night at the 
highest latitude ever attained by the Arctic explorer ; 
but there is nothing to relieve the " long, long, weary 
day " of its full power upon the system. 

In this latitude the sun goes down at night, and we 
retire to our couches and sleep. In the morning the 
sun returns, and we arise to the pursuit of our various 
daily avocations. But there, in the spring, the sun 
never sets. There is no morning and no night. It is 



96 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

one continuous day for months. At first it seems very 
difficult to understand this strange thing in nature. 
One never knows when to sleep. The world seems to 
be entirely wrong, and man grows nervous and restless. 
Sleep is driven from his weary eyelids, his appetite 
fails, and all the disagreeable results of protracted vig- 
ils are apparent. But gradually he becomes used *to 
this state of affairs, devises means to darken his tent, 
and once more enjoys his hour of rest. In fact, he 
learns how to take advantage of the new arrangement, 
and when travelling pursues his journey at night, or 
when the sun is lowest, because then he finds the frost 
that hardens the snow a great assistance in sledging. 

The sun's rays then, falling more obliquely, are less 
powerful,- and he avoids somewhat the evils that be- 
set his pathway at noontime. He is not so much ex- 
posed to sunburn or to snow-blindness. It may sound 
strangely to speak of sunburn in the frigid zone, but 
perhaps nowhere on the earth is the traveller more an- 
noyed by that great ill. The heat of ordinary exercise 
compels him to throw back the hood of his fur coat, 
that the cool evenings and mornings preclude his dis- 
carding, and not only his entire face becomes blistered, 
but especially — if he is fashionable enough to wear his 
hair thin upon the top of his head — his entire scalp is 
affected about as severely as if a bucket of scalding 
water had been poured over his head. This is not an 
exaggeration. At a later period than that of which I 
am writing, Lieutenant Schwatka's entire party, while 
upon a sledge journey from Marble Island to Camp 



THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 97 

Daly, were so severely burned that not only their faces 
bnt their entire heads were swollen to nearly twice 
their natural size. And a fine-looking party they were. 
Some had their faces so swollen that their eyes were 
completely closed upon awakening from sleep. When 
one could see the others he could not refrain from 
laughing, so ludicrous was the spectacle. All dignity 
was lost. Even the august commander of the party 
was a laughing-stock, and though he knew why they 
laughed at each other, he could not understand why he 
should excite such mirth until he saw his face in a mir- 
ror. Then, when he tried to smile, his lips were so 
thoroughly swollen that the effect was entirely lost, 
and it was impossible to tell whether his expression 
denoted amusement, anger, or pain. The torture re- 
sulting from these burns was so severe that it was 
almost impossible to sleep. The fur bedding, which 
also served the purpose of a pillow, irritated the burns 
like applying a mustard-plaster to a blister. Then it 
was that the night was turned into day for the rest of 
the journey, and during the heat of the day the party 
were comparatively comfortable in the shelter of their 
tent. Straw-hats would have been the proper style 
of head-dress, but they had been omitted from the 
outfit, as was also another very important source of 
comfort, mosquito nettings. It is in the summer, how- 
ever, that the necessity for the latter luxury is encoun- 
tered. 

While the sun's rays pour down with all their force 
upon the devoted head of the traveller the reflection 



98 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

from the snow is almost as intense and still more disa- 
greeable, for there is no possible escape from it. Not 
satisfied with producing its share of sunburn, it acts 
upon the eyes in a manner that produces that terrible 
scourge of the Arctic spring — snow-blindness. It is a 
curious fact that persons who are ri ear-sighted are gen- 
erally exempt from the evils of snow-blindness, while 
it appears to be more malignant with those who are 
far-sighted in direct ratio to the superior quality of 
their vision. Lieutenant Schwatka and his companion, 
the present writer, are both near-sighted, and during 
the two seasons that they were exposed to the disease 
neither were at any time affected by snow-blindness ; 
while the other members of the party, and especially 
the natives, who have most powerful visual organs, 
were almost constantly martyrs to the disease whenever 
exposed to its attacks. 

It seems the only method of guarding against it 
is to wear what we called snow-goggles all the time 
one is out of doors. The natives use those of home 
manufacture — that is, a piece of wood with a notch to fit 
over the bridge of the nose, and a narrow, horizontal 
slit opposite each eye. This rude spectacle, called by 
them igearktoo, is made to fit close to the eyes, and is 
held in place by strings passing behind and over the 
top of the head. It serves to shelter the eyes from the 
direct and reflected rays of the sun, but also interrupts 
the vision so much that they habitually push it up on 
top of their heads, and run a risk which almost invaria- 
bly results to their disadvantage, yet their goggles are 



THE MIDNIGHT SUN 99 

so unsatisfactory that no amount of adverse experience 
is sufficient to serve as a warning to them. The civil- 
ized visitors among them wear goggles of various pat- 
terns and degrees of excellence. Some are made of dif- 
ferently colored glass, from the various shades of 
smoked glass to blue and green of varying degrees 
of opacity; some are of glass surrounded with wire 
gauze ; others of wire gauze without the glass, and some 
are merely a strip of bunting hanging from the peak 
of the cap. Of all the various kinds the general ex- 
perience seems to be in favor of the wire gauze without 
glass. They interfere very little with the vision, and 
yet furnish a perfect protection for the eyes. Glass of 
any pattern or shade subjects the wearer to constant 
annoyance by fogging from the breath, which congeals 
very rapidly upon the surface of the glass, and appar- 
ently always at the most inconvenient time, as when 
the hunter is stalking a deer by crawling a long distance 
upon his hands and knees, and just as he raises his rifle 
for a shot his goggles are like pieces of ground glass. 
The native spectacles give such a limited field of vision 
that it is impossible to use them in hunting ; but the 
wire-gauze seems to be free from all these objections. 
A well-supplied expedition is provided with every kind 
of snow-goggles, as they are absolutely essential to the 
well-being of the party. The superiority of the wire- 
gauze pattern seemed to have been appreciated by the 
Franklin expedition, for many of them were subsequently 
found at the various burial-places and at other points 
where relics were obtained. It is also said that painting 



100 SCHWATEA'S SEARCH. 

around the eyes upon the upper and lower lids with 
burned cork or some dark pigment is a protection 
against snow-blindness ; but it is doubtful if this 
method has been sufficiently tested to admit of its 
being relied upon. The syniptoins of snow-blindness are 
inflammation of the inner coating of the lids, accom- 
panied by intense pain and impairment of the vision, so 
as to disable the sufferer from the performance of his 
duties. A wash of diluted tincture of opium is proba- 
bly the best remedy, and gives almost immediate relief. 
The patient should remain within doors for two or 
three days, by which time he will usually be suffi- 
ciently cured to resume his out-door labors. 

It might be supposed that in the utter barrenness of 
the Arctic landscape, flowers never grew there. This 
would be a great mistake. The dweller in that deso- 
late region, after passing a long, weary winter, with 
nothing for the eye to rest upon but the vast expanse 
of snow and ice, is in a condition to appreciate, beyond 
the ability of an inhabitant of warmer climes, the little 
flowerets that peep up almost through the snow when 
the spring sunlight begins to exercise its power upon 
the white mantle of the earth. In little patches here 
and there, where the dark-colored moss absorbs the 
warm rays of the sun, and the snow is melted from its 
surface, the most delicate flowers spring up at once to 
gladden the eye of the weary traveller. It needs not 
the technical skill of the botanist to admire these lovely 
tokens of approaching summer. Thoughts of home, in 
a warmer ■ and more hospitable climate, fill his heart 



THE MIDNIGHT SUN 101 

with joy and longing, as meadows filled with daisies and 
buttercups spread out before hirn, while he stands upon 
the crest of a granite hill that knows no footstep other 
than the tread of the stately musk-ox or the antlered 
reindeer, as they pass in single file upon their frequent 
journeys, and whose caverns echo to no sound save the 
howling of the wolves or the discordant cawing of the 
raven. He is a boy again, and involuntarily plucks the 
feathery dandelion, and seeks the time of day by blow- 
ing the puffy fringe from its stem, or tests the faith of 
the fair one, who is dearer to him than ever in this 
hour of separation, by picking the leaves from the yel- 
low-hearted daisy. Tiny little violets, set in a back- 
ground of black or dark green moss, adorn the hill-sides, 
and many flowers unknown to warmer zones come 
bravely forth to flourish for a few weeks only, and 
wither in the August winds. Very few of the flowers, 
so refreshing and charming to the eye, have any per- 
fume. Nearly all smell of the dank moss that forms 
their bed. 

As soon as the snow leaves the ground, the hill-sides 
in many localities are covered with the vine that bears 
a small black berry (called by the natives parwong,) in 
appearance, though not in flavor, like the huckleberry. 
It has a pungent spicy tartness that is very acceptable 
after a long diet of meat alone, and the natives, when 
they find these vines, stop every other pursuit for the 
blissful moments of cramming their stomachs with the 
fruit. This is kept up, if the crop only lasts long enough 
until they have made themselves thoroughly sick by 



102 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

their hoggishness. But the craving for some sort of 
vegetable diet is irresistible, and with true Inuit im- 
providence they indulge it, careless of consequences. 
Fortunate for them is it that their summer, is a short 
one, and the parwong not abundant, or cholera might be 
added to the other dangers of Arctic residence. But 
the days of the buttercup and the daisy, and of the 
butterfly and the mosquito are few. With the winter 
comes the all-pervading snow, and the keen, bracing 
north-west wind, the rosy cheek and the frozen nose ; 
but with it also comes rugged health and a steady diet 
of walrus meat. 



CHAPTER VII. 



EELICS . 



From this point onward our march was attended with 
the most profitable results. On the evening of the 4th 
of June we met a young man, named Adlekok, who, 
during the previous summer, had found a new cairn 
erected by white men near Pfeffer River, which had 
never been seen by any other Inuits. Near by were 
three graves and a tent place in which he found a pair 
of wire-gauze snow-goggles, which we bought from him. 
This information seemed of sufficient importance to be 
followed up immediately before any other natives should 
find and rob the cairn. Consequently the next day 
Lieutenant Schwatka and I took a light sled, with Too- 
looah to drive and Adlekok as guide, and visited the 
spot. We took a day's rations with us, to use in case 
we did not get back that night, and started with a 
head wind and storm that confined our view to the im- 
mediate vicinity of the sledge. Our guide, however, 
took us through this trackless waste of smooth ice, a 
distance of over twenty-five miles, without deviation 
from the direct line, with no landmarks or sun to steer 
by ; but on he went with the unerring instinct of a dog, 

until we struck the land at the western banks of Pfeffer 

103 



104 SCHWA TEA'S SEARCH. 

River. Arrived at the cairn we found it as he said, "a 
white man's cairn " unmistakably, but before proceeding 
to take it down we examined it caref idly and found 
scratched on a clay stone with the point of a sharp 
instrument, 



MAY 
XII 

1869 



HMA 
X] 
18* 



♦ 



and on the opposite side, 

# : # 

ETERNAL HONOR TO THE DISCOVER- 
ERS OP THE NORTH WE— 

# # 

and knew it to be the cairn erected by our countryman, 
Captain Hall, over the bones of two of Franklin's men 
which he speaks of having found here. A portion of 
the inscription was lost by the breaking off of a piece 
of the stone on which it was written. We did not take 
down the monument, but after making a hasty sketch, 
returned to camp, having travelled over fifty miles in ten 
hours. 

At this camp we found another interesting relic, in a 
pine board that seems to have been part of the head of 
a bunk or other permanent fixture, and has the initials 
"L. F." in brass tacks upon it. This was picked up on 
the west coast of Adelaide Peninsula, near where the 
ship went down that drifted through Victoria Strait, 
and may serve to identify that vessel, thus proving a 
most interesting and valuable historic relic. At the 



RELICS. 105 

next camp, which was our last stopping-place on the 
main-land, we met an old woman named Tooktoocheer, 
widow of Pooyetak, who was among the first to visit 
the boat place we saw a few days ago. We were some- 
what disappointed in her as a witness, for she was so 
old that her memory was at fault, and she would wan- 
der about to different places and relate circumstances 
without explanation. Her son, who was present at the 
interview, was a lad of about twelve years when he 
visited the boat place with his parents, and retained a 
vivid recollection of the place. His testimony, there- 
fore, proved to be what we had hoped of his mother's. 
All the time he was talking the old woman sat nodding 
approval as the circumstances he was relating were re- 
called to her memory. His name is Ogzeuckjeuwock, 
and he is an aruketko, or medicine-man, in his tribe. 
The recollection of the boat place was somewhat im- 
pressed upon his mind by the explosion of a can of 
powder with which he and another lad were playing 
after the articles were found there. The effects of the 
explosion came near proving fatal at the time, and when 
I met him during the fall on King William Land, he 
told me he had never entirely recovered from the 
shock. 

I give the interview with Tooktoocheer and her son 
as I recorded it in my note-book at the time, so that 
each reader may draw his own conclusions. Some of 
the statements will undoubtedly appear strange, but in 
the main they are perfectly intelligible and exceedingly 
interesting. Tooktoocheer said she was from Okbil- 



106 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

legeok (Pelly Bay of the charts), a portion of the 
Netckillik country. She is the widow of Pooyetak, 
spoken of by Sir John Ross and Captain Hall. She 
appeared to be about seventy years old, and was an 
object of high esteem by her people, as was evinced in 
the care that was bestowed upon her comfort. She 
said she had never seen any of Franklin's men alive, 
but saw six skeletons on the main-land and an adjacent 
island — four on the main-land and two on the island. 
This she pointed out on the southern coast near ninety- 
five degrees west longitude. There were no graves at 
either place. Her husband was with her at the time, 
and seven other Inuits. This was when she was at the 
boat place west of Richardson Point. In fact, she 
seemed to have the two places somewhat mixed up in 
her mind, and Ogzeuckjeuwock took up the thread of 
the narrative here. In answer to a question which we 
asked his mother, he said he saw books at the boat 
place in a tin case, about two feet long and a foot 
square, which was fastened, and they broke it open. 
The case was full. Written and printed books were 
shown him, and he said they were like the printed 
ones. Among the books he found what was probably 
the needle of a compass or other magnetic instrument, 
because he said when it touched any iron it stuck fast. 
The boat was right side up, and the tin case in the 
boat. Outside the boat he saw a number of skulls. 
He forgot how many, but said there were more than 
four. He also saw bones from legs and arms that 
appeared to have beeu sawed off. Inside the boat was 



RELICS. 107 

a box filled with bones ; the box was about the same 
size as the one with the books in it. 

He said the appearance of the bones led the Inuits 
to the opinion that the white men had been eating 
each other. What little flesh was still on the bones 
was very fresh ; one body had all the flesh on. The 
hair was light ; it looked like a long body. He saw a 
number of wire snow-goggles, and alongside the body 
with flesh on it was a pair of gold spectacles. (He 
picked out the kind of metal from several that were 
shown him.) He saw more than one or two pairs of 
such spectacles, but forgot how many. When asked 
how long the bodies appeared to have been dead when 
he saw them, he said they had probably died during 
the winter previous to the summer he saw them. In 
the boat he saw canvas and four sticks (a tent or sail), 
saw a number of watches, open-faced ; a few were 
gold, but most were silver. They are all lost now. 
They were given to the children to play with, and havo 
been broken up and lost. One body — the one with 
flesh on — had a gold chain fastened to gold ear-rings, 
and a gold hunting-case watch with engine-turned 
engraving attached to the chain, and hanging down 
about the waist. He said when he pulled the chain it 
pulled the head up by the ears. This body also had a 
gold ring on the ring finger of the right hand. It was 
taken off, and has since been lost by the children in the 
same way that the other things were lost. His reason 
for thinking that they had been eating each other was 
because the bones were cut with a knife or saw. They 



108 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

found one big saw and one small one in the boat ; also 
a large red tin case of smoking tobacco and some pipes. 
There was no cairn there. The bones are now covered 
up with sand and sea- weed, as they were lying just at 
high-water mark. Some of the books were taken home 
for the children to play with, and finally torn and lost, 
and others lay around among the rocks until carried 
away by the wind and lost or buried beneath the sand. 

His statement in reference to one of the deceased 
wearing a watch by a chain attached to his ears appears 
strange, but I give the statement as he made it. The 
chain may in some way have become attached to the 
ears, or, ridiculous as the story sounds, there may have 
been some eccentric person in the party who wore his 
watch in that way, and if such should prove to be the 
case, this would certainly identify him beyond doubt. 
While the old woman sat in our igloo giving her state- 
ment, or trying to recollect the circumstances, I suc- 
ceeded in getting a good portrait sketch of her, which 
attracted considerable interest among the natives, and 
Ogzeuckjeuwock, who toward the latter part of the in- 
terview had begun to exhibit symptoms of impatience, 
turned quickly around as soon as he had finished, and 
asked to have his portrait taken also, in which I accom- 
modated him, much to his gratification. 

In reviewing the testimony of the foregoing witnesses 
it appears confirmatory of the opinion that the skele- 
tons found at this place were the remains of some of 
the party who were seen by Ahlangyah and her friends 
on Washington Bay. She said that " Toolooah," "Ag- 



RELICS. 109 

loocar," and " Doktook " wore spectacles, and spectacles 
were found at the boat place. Gold watches being 
found, there is also an evidence that there were officers 
in the party. It is probable that the five men who had 
a tent on shore near the Inuit tupics were all officers. 
It is also a very natural deduction that the books that 
were found in a sealed or locked tin case, which had to 
be broken open by the natives, were the more impor- 
tant records of the expedition, and in charge of the 
chief surviving officers, as it is not probable that men 
who were reduced to the extremity that these were, 
and having to drag everything by hand, would burden 
themselves with general reading matter. The boat, 
judging from the relics that we found, was a very heavy 
one, and copper bottomed ; for most of the kettles that 
we saw in use among the Netchilliks were made of 
sheet copper that they said came from this and the 
other boats in Erebus Bay. But the boat was an ab- 
solute necessity and could not be abandoned. There is 
no doubt, however, that everything superfluous had 
been dropped from time to time, until nothing remained 
that could possibly be dispensed with, and such books 
as they had, besides the Nautical Almanac and Ephem- 
eris, if indeed under the circumstances they would even 
carry them, were probably the most important records 
of the expedition. 

During the year and a half that the Erebus and 
Tensor were frozen fast in the Victoria Strait, the offi- 
cers had probably surveyed the adjacent shores very 
carefully, and had undoubtedly made observations that 



110 SCHWA TKA'S SEARCH. 

Avere highly important. Especially would this be the 
case with their magnetical observations, as they were 
right upon the magnetic pole. We saw some tall and 
very conspicuous cairns near Cape Felix, which had no 
records in them, and were apparently erected as points 
of observation from the ships. As their terrible ex- 
perience commenced after abandoning the vessels, it is 
probable that their time previous to that was occupied 
in a manner creditable to themselves and exceedingly 
valuable to all interested in scientific work. The records 
of these observations were in all probability contained 
in the tin box which Ogzeuckjeuwock speaks of as 
having been found and lost beyond recoveiy. 

An old Netchiilik, named Ockarnawole, stated that 
five years ago he and his son, who was also present in 
the igloo, made an excursion along the north-western 
coast of King William Land. Between Victory Point 
and Cape Felix they found some things in a small cask 
near the salt water. In a monument that he did not 
take down, he found between the stones five jack-knives 
and a pair of scissors, also a small flat piece of tin, now 
lost ; saw no graves at this place, but found what, from 
his description of the way the handle was put on, was 
either an adze or a pickaxe. A little north of this place 
found a tent place and three tin cups. About Victory 
Point found a grave, with a skeleton, clothes, and a jack- 
knife with one blade broken. Saw no books. In a 
little bay on the north side of Collinson Inlet saw a 
quantity of clothes. There was plenty of snow on the 
ground at the time they were there. 



RELICS. 113 

Viewing this statement in the light of our subse- 
quent search upon this ground, I am inclined to believe 
that the grave they found was not at Victory Point, 
but was Irving's grave, about three miles below there. 
We saw no evidence of any grave at Victory Point, 
though we made a particularly extended search around 
that entire section of the country. The little bay 
spoken of is also probably the little bay where Lieu- 
tenant Irving's grave was discovered. There is a little 
bay on the north side of Collinson Inlet, but "Lieutenant 
Schwatka and I visited it several times without find- 
ing any traces of clothing or any other evidences of 
white men having been there ; and from what we saw 
at other places it seems almost impossible that there 
could have been much there as late as five years ago 
without some indications remaining. The vicinity of 
places where boats had been destroyed, or camps where 
clothiug was found, were invariably indicated by pieces 
of cloth among the rocks, at greater or less intervals, 
for a long distance — sometimes as far as one or two 
miles on either side, and it would be almost impossible 
to escape seeing the principal point when led to it by 
such gradually cumulative evidence. 

From this camp we went in two marches to Cape 
Herschel, where we left the heaviest of our baggage, 
with Joe and the other Inuits, taking only the white 
men of the party, with Toolooah and his family, and 
Owanork, Equeesik's youngest brother, to assist in the 
management of the sled, and started for Cape Felix on 
the 17th. We left instructions with Joe to remain at 



114 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

Cape Herscliel as long as they could find enough to eat 
there ; but if there was more game further down the 
coast, or on the main-land, to go there, and leave stones 
to indicate their route, so Toolooah w r ould know where 
to look for them when we returned from Cape Felix. 
We took a course but little west of north, and at night 
encamped at the head of Washington Bay. Here we 
left the salt-water ice and started across land, keeping 
the same direction, with the intention of striking Col- 
linson Inlet near its head. Our surprise can then be 
imagined when, after two days' travelling, we came out 
on Erebus Bay, which we thought was far to the west. 
This discrepancy was afterward accounted for when 
we found, by a comparison with the position of points 
between Cape Jane Franklin and Cape Felix, estab- 
lished by Sir James Ross, and confirmed by the officers 
of the Erebus and Terror, that Cape Herschel is really 
about eighteen or twenty miles further west than 
mapped on the Admiralty charts. 

The travelling across land was exceedingly heavy and 
tedious, owing to the softening condition of the snow, 
and to the lakes being covered with water to the depth 
of about six or eight inches. In the morning the slight 
crust on the snow, formed during the night, would 
break through at nearly every step ; while during the 
rest of the day it was simply wading through slush or 
water. We found the salt-water ice also in a bad con- 
dition for travelling. It was very old ice, and as hum- 
mocky as it is possible for ice to be. We usually kept 
near the coast, where we found pretty good sledging ; 



RELICS. 115 

but one day we took to the hummocks, to avoid a great 
detour that following the shore ice would have entailed 
upon us, and did it to our sorrow. The fall snows 
and winter winds had piled up around and among the 
hummocks, filling in the interstices, so that, were the 
snow frozen, the sledging would not have been so 
very difficult ; but the sun had already poured his rays 
upon it, clay and night, for so long a time that the 
snow was soft, and nearly every step would break 
through. 

Sometimes we would sink to our waists, and then 
our legs would be dangling in slush and water without 
finding bottom. The sled would often sink so that the 
dogs could not pull it out, light as was the load, and 
when we would gather round to help them, we could 
only get an occasional foothold, perhaps by kneeling in 
a hummock, or holding on with one hand while we 
pulled with the other. Even the dogs could not pull 
to any advantage. Some would be floundering in the 
slush and water, while others were scrambling over the 
broken ice, and yet under all these disadvantages we 
were able to make a inarch of ten miles, through the 
skill and experience of our limit dog driver. Without 
the assistance of dogs and natives, it is altogether prob- 
able that we would not have been able to accomplish 
more than two or three miles at the best ; and I can 
well understand that Dr. Hayes had so much difficulty 
in crossing Smith Sound through the heavy hummocks 
in the spring of 1861. But at the same time I feel 
pretty well convinced that with plenty of good dogs 



116 SCHWATEA'S SEARCH. 

and competent native drivers to manage the sledges, 
there is no ice in the Arctic that would prevent an 
average march of ten miles a day, with light loads, 
during the long days of spring. I would not even 
stipulate for such an exceptionally excellent guide and 
driver as our faithful Toolooah. Such as he are rare 
anywhere, and especially so among the Esquimaux. 
He is not only the best hunter in his tribe, but the 
best dog driver, and the most energetic man I have 
seen among all the tribes with whom I have come in 
contact. He is more like a capable white man, in that 
respect, than an Esquimau, and there is a legend in 
his tribe that he was never known to be tired. It is 
certain that to him, more than to all the other natives 
with us, combined, is due the success of our enter- 
prise. 

When the weather was unpropitious for hunting, and 
we would be without food, it was nothing more than 
the usual Inuit custom to say, u Ma-muk-poo-now " (" No 
good "), and sit down to wait for the weather to im- 
prove. But under such circumstances I have known 
our brave-hearted Toolooah rise equal to the emergency 
and go out to hunt for game until he found it. The 
others would perhaps go out and look around for a 
short time, and if they saw no game would come in, 
while he would not get in until nearly midnight, if, as 
was seldom the case, he came in empty-handed. I re- 
member one time when we were without food, and 
moving into a portion of the country which we knew 
to be but thinly stocked with game. The hunters all 



RELICS. 119 

went out, though the weather was thick with snow, 
and the only probability of seeing reindeer was that 
they might stumble upon them unobserved by the acci- 
dent of approaching them against the wind. The others 
came in about noon, discouraged, having seen no game. 
Toolooah, on the contrary, did not get in until about 
five hours later; then he came in for the dogs, to 
bring in three reindeer that he had killed a few miles 
north of the camp. He went out in a south-westerly 
direction, and started to make a circuit of the camp on 
a radius of about five miles. By this ingenious course 
he came upon the fresh tracks of three reindeer, and at 
once started in pursuit, determined to follow them until 
he came up to them. The days were short, and he had 
to move rapidly, so that he absolutely ran about twelve 
miles until he overtook and killed them. I merely 
mention this incident to show the kind of metal our 
Toolooah is made of; not as a sample of Inuit character, 
but as a remarkable contrast to it. 

Our ten-mile march through Erebus Bay occupied 
fifteen hours, and we were all pretty well worn out when 
we reached the shore and encamped, still some distance 
below Franklin Point. We lay over the next day, for 
Toolooah, who had exerted himself even beyond his 
great powers of endurance, was still quite exhausted, 
and though he expressed his readiness to resume the 
journey, Lieutenant Schwatka did not think it suffi- 
ciently urgent to run the risk of breaking him down 
altogether ; not only out of personal regard for the noble 
fellow, but, as he was our sole dependence, losing his 



120 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

services would Lave been a sad if not a fatal disaster 
to the entire party. During the day I shot two of an 
apparently distinct species of snipe, to preserve their 
skins for the Smithsonian Institute collection. One of 
them was distinguished by a sweet, simple song, some- 
what similar to the lark's, its silvery tones gushing forth 
as if in perfect ecstasy of enjoyment of sunshine and air; 
at the same time rising and poising itself upon its wings. 
It saemed almost inhuman to kill the sweet little song- 
ster, particularly as it was the only creature I saw in the 
Arctic that uttered a pleasant note. All other sounds 
were sucli as the scream of the hawk and the gull, the 
quack of the duck, the yell of the wolf, the " Ooff ! 
ooff ! " of the walrus, or tne bark of the seal — all harsh 
and unmelodious, save the tones of this sweet little 
singer. Nothing but starvation or scientific research 
could justify the slaughter of one of these innocents. 
I believe I shut my eyes wlien I pulled the trigger of 
my gun, and I know my heart gave a regretful thump 
when I heard the thud of its poor, bleeding body upon 
the ground. When we started for Franklin Point the 
next day, Lieutenant Schwatka concluded to follow 
Toolooah's advice, and keep upon the smooth ice near 
the shore, even though it should increase the distance 
marched. Our experience of the hummocks of Victoria 
Strait was not one that we were anxious to repeat. We 
had a short stretch of similar work in crossing the mouth 
of an inlet just below Franklin Point, and we were glad 
enough when we got through. The thermometer regis- 
tered thirty-seven degrees in the shade, and sixty degrees 



RE LIC 8. 121 

in the sun. There was scarcely any wind, and coats 
were a burden of which we had soon to relieve our- 
selves. The heat while walking was quite as exhaust- 
ing as ninety-eight degrees in the shade at New York. 
We saw a number of seals on the ice opposite the mouth 
of the inlet, and Toolooah shot one which was an un- 
usually big specimen. In fact, the average of those we 
saw in this part of the country is much larger than 
those at Hudson's Bay. 

During the entire day and night small flocks of 
ducks were flying swiftly past the tent, and so unac- 
customed are they to meeting human beings in that 
wilderness, that they would be almost directly on the 
tent before they saw it, which only caused them to de- 
viate a little to the right or left, or put on a little more 
steam. Lieutenant Schwatka seated himself on a rock 
alongside the tent, with his double-barrelled breech- 
loading shot-gun in his hand, and in a short time stop- 
ped three — two drakes and a duck. The drakes are 
exceedingly pretty, especially about the head and neck. 
The head is of a pale olive-green hue, a fashionable 
color in silks a few years ago, and known by the extra- 
ordinary name of " Elephant's Breath." This gradually 
merges into a very pale, warm gray, the line of demar- 
cation between it and the very dark brown, which con- 
stitutes the general color of the body, being very abrupt. 
The bill is of a vermilion red, and surmounted by a 
bright orange-colored crest, with a black border as pos- 
itively marked as if of black tape. At this season we 
usually see the drakes flying together, and the ducks in 



122 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

separate bands, reminding one of the division of sexes 
in a country meeting-house. We often came upon an 
immense body of drakes sitting upon the edge of an 
ice-floe, looking very much like a regiment of hussars 
at a distance drawn up in line of battle. The duck is 
not so gaudy as her husband. She is quite contented 
in a full suit of mottled brown and olive gray, present- 
ing a texture on the back somewhat similar to the can- 
vas-back species of Chesapeake Bay. About half-past 
ten o'clock in the evening, Toolooah and I walked up 
to the crest of a ridge, north of camp, to see if there 
were any points still to the north of us in this meridian. 
We found the coast bearing off well toward the east- 
ward, and then toward the north-east, and knew it to 
be the upper coast of Franklin Point. We also saw a 
reindeer, which Toolooah shot before returning to 
camp. 

When we left Franklin Point, the four white men of 
the party kept upon the land near the coast, and left 
the sled in charge of the Inuits to follow along the 
shore ice. The snow was entirely off the ridges, and 
only lay in great patches of soft slush in the valleys 
and upon occasional marshes. We spread out on the 
land, so as to cover as much ground in our search as 
possible, moving along like a line of skirmishers, with 
instructions that in case we saw anything that we did 
not understand, or which required further investigation, 
to make signals to assemble. In this way, before reach- 
ing Collinson Inlet, we found the graves of two white 
men, near one of which was lying the upper part of a 



RELICS. 123 

skull ; while within the pile of stones we found the 
upper maxilla, with two teeth, and a piece of the cheek- 
bone. No other human bones were found ; but these 
were laid together for burial on our return, when we 
could give a more thorough search. 



CHAPTEK VIII. 



The next day we stayed at Cape Jane Franklin to 

make a preliminary search of the vicinity. Lieutenant 

Schwatka and I went up Collinson Inlet, but saw no 

traces of white men. Henry and Frank, who had been 

sent up the coast, were more fortunate. About a mile 

and a half above camp they came upon the camp made 

by Captain Crozier, with his entire command from the 

two ships, after abandoning the vessels. There were 

several cooking stoves, with their accompanying copper 

kettles, besides clothing, blankets, canvas, iron and brass 

implements, and an open grave, wherein was found a 

quantity of blue cloth, part of which seemed to have 

been a heavy overcoat, and a part probably wrapped 

around the body. There was also a large quantity of 

canvas in and around the grave, with coarse stitching 

through it and the cloth, as though the body had been 

incased as if for burial at sea. Several gilt buttons were 

found among the rotting cloth and mould in the bottom 

of the grave, and a lens, apparently the object-glass of 

a marine telescope. Upon one of the stones at the foot 

of the grave Henry found a medal, which was thickly 

covered with grime, and was so much the color of the 

124 



IRVING' S GRAVE. 



125 



clay stone on which it rested as to nearly escape detec- 
tion. It proved to be a silver medal, two and a half 
inches in diameter, with a bass-relief portrait of George 
IV., surrounded by the words, 



v*> 



GEORGIUS IIII., D. G. BRITTANNIARUM 
REX, 1820. 



4- 



- 



on the obverse, and on the reverse a laurel wreath sur- 
rounded by 



♦- 



s> 



SECOND MATHEMATICAL PRIZE, ROYAL 
NAVAL COLLEGE, 



-<# 



and inclosing 



# 



AWARDED TO JOHN IRVING. 
SUMMER, 1830. 



MID- 



-<€> 



This at once identified the grave as that of Lieuten- 
ant John Irving, third officer of the Terror. Under the 
head was found a figured silk pocket-handkerchief, 
neatly folded, the colors and pattern in a remarkable 
state of preservation. The skull and a few other bones 
only were found in and near by the grave. They were 
carefully gathered together, with a few pieces of the 
cloth and the other articles, to be brought away for inter- 
ment Avhere they may hereafter rest undisturbed. A re- 
burial on King William Land would be only until the 
grave was again found by the natives, when it would 
certainly be again torn open and despoiled. 



126 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

The clay after this discovery was made by the men 
we moved camp to the vicinity of the grave, and spent 
two days in searching for other matters of interest; but 
there was still some snow on the ground, and little 
ponds in the vicinity of the articles were partly frozen, 
so that an exhaustive search was impossible. Upon 
our return from Cape Felix, on the 11th of July, we 
found the snow entirely gone, aud the ponds near the 
shore nearly all dry ; we therefore had little difficulty in 
completing the search at that time. Among the various 
articles found was a brush with the name " H. Wilts " 
cut in the side, a two-gallon stone jug stamped " R. 
Wheatley, wine and spirit merchant, Greenhithe, Kent," 
several tin cans, a pickle bottle, and a canvas pulling 
strap, a sledge harness marked with a stencil plate "T 
11," showing it to have belonged to the Terror. We 
also found a stocking, rudely made of a piece of blanket, 
showing that they were in need of good stockings, 
Avhich are so essential to the comfort of the Arctic 
traveller. For this purpose nothing is so good as the 
fur of the reindeer, but next to that well-made woollen 
stockings are the best. It was heart-rending to see this 
mute testimony to their destitution. 

At our second visit Toolooah's wife found in a pile of 
stones, where had formerly stood the cairn seen by 
Lieutenant Hobson, a piece of paper which had weath- 
ered the storms of more than twenty Arctic winters. 
It was with much difficulty that I could open it without 
tearing it, while all stood around in anxious expectancy, 
confident that it was an additional recofd from Captain 



IRVING' S GRAVE. 127 

Crozier, as it was in a tattered and weather-beaten 
condition. 

It, however, proved to be a copy of the Crozier 
record found by Lieutenant Hobson, of McClintock's 
expedition, and was in the handwriting of Sir Leopold 
McClintock. The document was written with a lead 
pencil on note-paper, and was partially illegible from 
exposure. It was literally as follows : — 

May 7, 1859, 
Lat. 69° 38/ long. 98° 41' W. 
This cairn was found yesterday by a party from Lady Frank- 
lin's discovery yacht Fox, now wintering in Bellot Strait * 
****** a notice of which the following 
is * * * removed : — 

28th Mat, 1847. 

H. M. ships Erebus and Terror wintered in the ice in lat. 70° 
05' INT., long. 98° 23' W., having wintered at Beechy Island, in lat. 
74° 43' 28" N., long. 91° 39' 15' ' W., after having ascended Wel- 
lington Channel to lat. 77°, and returned by the west side of 
Comwallis Island. 

Sir John Franklin commanding the expedition. All well. A 
party of two officers and six men left the ships on Monday, the 
24th May. 

Graham Gore. 
Charles F. Des V * * *. 
***** into a * * * * * 

printed form, which was a request in six languages, that if 
picked up it might be forwarded to the British Admiralty. 

Round the margin of this paper was : — 

The 25th April, 1848. 
H. M. ships Terror and Erebus, were deserted on the 22d 



128 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

April * * opens to the N. E". Wd. of this, haying heen beset 
since 12th Sept., 1846. The officers and crews, consisting of 105 
souls, under the command of Captain F. M. Crozier, landed here 
in lat. 69° 37' 42' ' N., long. 98° 41' W. 

This paper was found by Lieutenant Irving, under the cairn 
supposed to have been built by Sir James Eoss in 1831, four 
miles to the northward, where it had been deposited by the late 
Commander Core in June, 1847. Sir James Eoss' pillar has not, 
however, been found * * the paper has been transferred 

* this position which * * 

******* * * * * was 

erected. 

Sir Jobn Franklin died on the 7th of June, 1847, and the total 
loss by deaths in the expedition has been * officers 

and fifteen men. 

F. M. Ceozier, Captain and Senior Officer. 
James Fitz James, Captain H. M. S. Erebus. 
And start to-morrow for Back's Fish Eiver. 

At this cairn, which we reached * * noon yesterday; the 
last cairn appear to have made a selection of gear for travelling — 
leaving all that was superfluous strewn about its vicinity. I re- 
mained at this spot until nearly noon of to-day, searching for 
relics, etc. No other papers * * been found. 

It is my intention to follow the land to the S. W., in quest of 
the wreck of a ship said by the Esquimaux to be on the beach. 
Three other cairns have been found between this and Cape Felix 

* * * tb. e y contain no inf or * * * 
************ 

* * * about it. 

William E. Hobsok, 

Lieut, in charge of party. 

This paper is a copy of a record left here by Captain Crozier 
when retreating with the crews of the Erebus and Terror to the 
Great Fish Eiver — the information of its discovery by Lieut, W. 
E. Hobson is intended for me. As the natives appear to have 



IRVING' 'S GRAVE. 129 

pulled down a cairn erected here in 1831, I purpose burying a 
record at ten feet true north from the centre of this cairn, and at 
one foot below the surface. 

F. L. McClintock, Capt. E. N". 



The asterisks in the foregoing copy indicate illegible 
words, the paper being much torn and soiled by ex- 
posure. 

We at once set about digging for the record that 
Captain McClintock proposed to bury ten feet true 
north from the centre of the cairn, and a foot below 
the surface ; but though we dug a deep trench four feet 
wide from the centre of the cairn, due north, for a dis- 
tance of twenty feet, nothing was found, and the infer- 
ence is that Captain McClintock either failed to deposit 
the record, or that changes in the surface of the ground 
have brought it to light, and it has either been stolen 
by natives or washed into the sea. Some of the articles 
found were strewn along the beach for a long distance 
on either side of the pile of clothing and heavy imple- 
ments, and were covered up with snow when we first 
visited the spot. There was a large quantity of cask 
hoops near by, but no wood. Even the handles of the 
shovels and pickaxes had been sawed off, probably by 
the natives who first found the place. 

This was evidently the spot where the crews landed 
when they abandoned the ships, and, as Lieutenant 
Hobson says, it appears as if they had selected only 
what was necessary for their sledge journey. It would 
further appear that when the party reached the south- 



130 SUHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

ern coast of King William Land after a tedious and 
wasting journey, and found themselves fast fading away 
without being able to reach the main-land, a small party 
was sent back to the ships for provisions. The testi- 
mony of the Ookjoolik, who saw the ship that sank off 
Grant Point, showed that there were some stores on 
board even then, though only a small quantity. It is 
probable that Lieutenant Irving was the officer in 
charge of this return party, and that he died after 
reaching the camp. It is also probable that these 
people, who, according to the Ookjoolik testimony, 
drifted with the ship to the island off Grant Point, 
were also of this party, and, with the sailors' instinct, 
preferred to stick to the ship to returning to the 
already famishing party which they left with scarcely 
any better prospects on the south coast. The appear- 
ance of the boat place on Erebus Bay seems to indicate 
that it floated ashore after the ice broke up, and had 
previously been abandoned by those who were able to 
walk. That skeletons were found in the boat by those 
who saw it before it was destroyed, and near by 
by our party, would seem to indicate that the whole 
party were in a desperate condition at the time, 
otherwise the helpless ones would not have been aban- 
doned. 

Such a state of affairs could scarcely have occurred 
on their southern trip, and is a strong indication of a 
return party. Lieutenant Irving's death had not oc- 
curred when they first left the vicinity of Cape Jane 
Franklin, or it would have been mentioned in Captain 



IRVING' 8 GRAVE. 131 

Crozier's record, which was written the day before they 
started for Back's River. That the boat on Erebus 
Bay drifted in, is evident from its being found just at 
high- water mark, where the debris are still visible. At 
the time the party returned under Lieutenant Irving 
the sleds could not have been dragged along that line, 
as the snow would have been off the ground just then, 
and probably was gone when the large party got so 
far on their way south, as the testimony of the natives 
who met them in Washington Bay shows that they 
moved exceedingly slow by. That there were men on 
the ship that drifted down Victoria Strait is additional 
reason for believing that they returned, for Captain 
Crozier in his record accounts for all the survivors being 
with him. It is possible that those who went out to 
the ship were caught there by the ice breaking up, and 
could not rejoin their companions on the shore, if in- 
deed there were any there, which is doubtful, for we 
saw no skeletons at the camping place except Lieuten- 
ant Irving's. The ice broke up in Erebus Bay and 
Victoria Strait the year we were there on the 24th of 
July, and it is probable that it was as late in the season 
when the return party reached the camp near Lieuten- 
ant Irving's grave. 

We left Irving Bay on the 30th of June, caching all 
our heavy stuff in order to lighten the sled as much as 
possible, and reached Cape Felix on the 3d of July, 
having lain over one day on the north side of Wall 
Bay. We saw no traces of the Franklin expedition 
until we arrived at our place of encampment, near 



132 SCHWA TEA'S SEARCH. 

Cape Felix. The walking, however, was developing 
new tortures for us every clay. We were either wading 
through the hill-side torrents or lakes, which, frozen on 
the bottom, made the footing exceedingly treacherous, 
or else with seal-skin boots, rendered soft by constant 
wetting, painfully plodding over sharp clay stones, set 
firmly in the ground, with the edges pointing up, or 
lying flat and slipping as we stepped upon them and 
sliding the unwary foot into a crevice that would seem- 
ingly wrench it from the body. These are some of the 
features of a walk on King William Land, and yet we 
moved about ten miles a day, and made as thorough a 
search as was possible. All rocky places that looked 
anything like opened graves or torn-down cairns — in 
fact, all places where stones of any kind seemed to 
have been gathered together by human hands — were ex- 
amined, and by spreading out at such intervals as the 
nature of the ground indicated, covered the greatest 
amount of territory. Lieutenant Schwatka carried his 
double-barrelled shotgun and killed a great many ducks 
and geese, and I, with my Sharp's rifle, got an occasional 
reindeer. We were now on a meat diet exclusively, and, 
as most of it was eaten almost as soon as killed, we all 
suffered more or less from diarrhoea. Nor did we have 
any other food until nine months later, when we 
reached the ship George and Mary, at Marble Island, 
except a few pounds of corn starch, which we had left 
at Cape Herschel when we started for Cape Felix on 
the 17th of June. In due course of time, however, 
we got used to the diet, and experienced no greater 



IRVING' 8 GRAVE. 133 

inconvenience from it than did our native compan- 
ions. 

Where we encamped, which was about three miles 
south of Cape Felix, was what appeared to be a torn- 
down cairn, and a quantity of canvas and coarse red 
woollen stuff, pieces of blue cloth, broken bottles, and 
other similar stuff, showing that there had been a per- 
manent camping place here from the vessels, while a 
piece of an ornamented china tea-cup, and cans of pre- 
served potatoes showed that it was in charge of an 
officer. 

Our flag waved from the highest point of King Wil- 
liam Land throughout the day following, which we 
were altogether too patriotic to forget was Indepem 
dence Day. After firing a national salute from our rifles 
and shotguns our day's work was resumed. Henry and 
Frank were sent to explore the two points further along 
the coast, while Lieutenant Schwatka and I searched 
the vicinity of the camp and about a mile inland. It 
was a dismal, foggy day, but we derived great comfort 
from occasional glimpses of our country's flag through 
the lifting fog, the only inspiriting sight in this desolate 
wilderness — a region that fully illustrates " the abomi- 
nation of desolation" spoken of by Jeremiah the 
prophet. 

The next day Lieutenant Schwatka went further in- 
land, Frank and Henry down the coast, and I took Too- 
looah, with the sled, and went around the point toward 
Cape Sidney, keeping well out on the ice, to see if any 
cairn might have been erected to attract attention from 



134 SCHWATKA' S SEARCH. 

that direction. On the way we stopped and took down 
a cairn that I had seen on the day of our arrival. We 
found nothing in it, though, the earth beneath it being 
soft, we dug far down in the hope of finding something 
to account for its existence, as Toolooah believed, though 
he was not certain, that it was a white man's cairn. I 
did not go as far as Cape Sidney, which had been my 
intention, as a thick fog, which came up as we left the 
cairn, rendered the trip useless for the purpose intended, 
as we could only get occasional glimpses of the shore, 
and could not see inland at all. 

Lieutenant Schwatka found a well-built cairn or pillar 
seven feet high, on a high hill about two miles back from 
the coast, and took it down very carefully without meet- 
ing with any record or mark whatever. It was on a 
very prominent hill, from which could plainly be seen 
the trend of the coast on both the eastern and western 
shores, and would most certainly have attracted the at- 
tention of any vessels following in the route of the 
Erebus and Terror, though hidden by intervening hills 
from those walking along the coast. The next day 
Frank, Toolooah, and I went with Lieutenant Schwatka 
to take another look in the vicinity of the cairn, and to 
see if, with a spy-glass, we could discover any other cairn 
looking from that hill, but without success. It seemed 
unfortunate that probably the only cairn left standing 
on King William Land, built by the hands of white 
men, should have had no record left in it, as there it 
might have been well preserved. When satisfied that 
no document had been left there, the inference was that 



IRVING' 8 GRAVE. 135 

it had been erected in the pursuit of the scientific work 
of the expedition, or that it had been used in alignment 
with some other object to watch the drift of the ships. 
Before leaving we rebuilt the cairn, and deposited in it 
a record of the work of the Franklin search party to 
date. 



CHAPTER IX. 



AECTIC COSTUMES. 



We left Cape Felix on the 7th of July, reluctantly 
satisfied that Sir John Franklin had not been buried in 
that vicinity. The minuteness of our search will appear 
in the number of exploded percussion caps, shot, and 
other small articles that were found in various places. 
The Inuits who were with us evinced a most remarkable 
interest in our labors, and with their eagle eyes were 
ever finding things that would have escaped our atten- 
tion. Everything they did not fully understand they 
brought to us, and though many of such things were of 
no account they were not discouraged. Since Toolooah 
had found the inscription scratched on a clay stone on 
the monument erected by Captain Hall over the remains 
near Pfeffer River, he had always been watchful, and 
often, while away from camp hunting, he has come upon 
a stone near a demolished cairn, or on some conspicuous 
place which had marks on that he thought might be 
writing. These he invariably brought into camp, 
though often compelled to carry them a long distance, 
in addition to a load of meat. We always praised his 
efforts in that line, and were pleased to notice that he 

did not get discouraged by repeated failures to discover 

136 



ARCTIC COSTUMES. 137 

something of interest. He is as untiring in Ms efforts 
to aid us in our search as in securing food, and there is 
always a degree of intelligence displayed in whatever he 
undertakes that is wholly foreign to the Inuit character. 
Even the stones that he brought into camp bore marks 
that were most astonishingly like writing. You could 
almost read them. If we had not been so straitened 
for transportation we would have brought some of these 
remarkable specimens home. 

As far as we had now progressed scarcely anything 
had given us more trouble than the question of cloth- 
ing. In countries where tailors and dressmakers are 
abundant, clothing is a matter of very little labor to 
the masses — in fact, it simply resolves itself into a ques- 
tion of pecuniary resources. The dwellers in civilized 
cities can, therefore, scarcely appreciate the toil which 
all must share to secure the necessary garments to pro- 
tect those who live in the highest latitudes. 

In the fur of the reindeer nature has provided the 
best possible protection from the cold, with the least 
amount of weight to the wearer. It might be possible 
to cover one's self with a sufficient quantity of woollen 
clothing to guard against the severest weather in the 
north, but it would require a man of immense muscular 
power to sustain the load. Two suits of reindeer cloth- 
ing, weighing in all about five pounds, are quite ample 
for any season, and are only worn in the coldest weather. 
At other times one suit is all that is necessary. The 
inner coat is made of the skin of the reindeer killed in 
the early summer, when the hair is short and as soft as 



138 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

velvet, and is worn with the hairy side next to the bare 
skin. It is at first difficult for one to persuade himself 
that he will be warmer without his woollen undershirts 
than with them ; but he is not long in acquiring the 
knowledge of this fact from experience. The trousers 
are made of the same material, as are also the stockings 
that complete his inner attire, or, so to speak, his suit 
of underclothing. This inner suit — with the addition 
of a pair of seal or reindeer skin slippers, with the hair 
outside, and a pair of seal-skin boots from which the 
hair has been removed, with soles of walrus or okejook 
skin, and drawing-strings which fasten them just below 
the knee — comprises his spring, summer, and fall cos- 
tume. The boots have also an additional string passing 
through loops on the side, over the instep and behind 
the heel, which makes them fit comfortably to the ankle. 
In winter seal-skin is entirely discarded by the native 
Esquimaux as too cold, and boots of reindeer skin, 
called mit-co-lee-lee', from the leg of the animal, are 
substituted, and snow-shoes of the same sort of skin, 
with the hair inside, and a false sole of skin from the 
face of the buck, with the hair outside, complete the 
covering of his feet. This hairy sole not only deadens 
the sound of his footsteps upon the hard snow, but 
makes his feet much warmer, as it has the same effect 
as if he were walking upon a carpet of furs instead of 
upon the naked snow. In cold or windy weather, 
when out of doors, the native puts on another coat, 
called a koo'-lee tar, which is made of skin with heavier 
fur, from the animal killed in the fall. 



ARCTIC C08TUMES. 139 

The winter skins, with the heaviest and longest fur, 
are seldom used for clothing if a sufficient supply of the 
fall and summer skins has been secured. They are 
principally used for making what might be called the 
mattress of the bed. Sometimes, however, in the se- 
verest weather, a coat made of the heavy skin is worn 
when the hunter has to sit by a seal's blow-hole for 
hours at a time, without the least motion, waiting for 
the animal to come up and blow. In cold weather, 
when out of doors, he also wears an outside pair of 
trousers, called see'-ler-par, which are worn with the 
hair outside (all trousers are called kok'-e-lee, the out- 
side see'-ler-par, and the inside ones e'-loo-par). The 
inside coat is called an ar-tee'-gee, and is made like a 
sack, with a tail attached, and a hood which can be 
pulled up over the head at pleasure. The kok'-e-lee 
are both made with a drawing- string at the waist, and 
only reach a short distance below the knee. They are 
very wide there, so that when the wearer sits clown his 
bare knee is exposed. This is not as disagreeable to 
the wearer, even in that climate, as one would nat- 
urally suppose, but is really more unpleasant for the 
spectator, for he not only sees the bare knee but the 
film of dirt that incases it. The coats are very loose 
also, and expose the bare skin of the stomach when the 
wearer reaches his hands above his head. 

The coats of the women differ from those of the men 
only in having a short tail in front, and a much longer 
one behind. They also have a loose bag on each 
shoulder, and the hood is much longer than the men 



140 BCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

wear. The ^vo^len's outside coats are always made of 
the short hair, the same as are their ar-tee'-gee. Their 
trousers reach further below the knee, fit closer to the 
leg, and are worn with the hairy side out. Women 
never wear but the one pair in any weather. Their 
stockings and boots are made with a sort of wing ex- 
tension at the ankle, and, coming up over the bottom of 
the trousers, have a long strijD, by which they are fast- 
ened to the belt that also sustains their trousers at the 
waist. 

To secure the necessary amount of skins for his fam- 
ily taxes the skill of the best hunter, for they must be 
secured in the summer and fall. Each adult requires 
six skins for his outfit, besides the number for the bed- 
ding. Take, then, an average family of a hunter, two 
wives and three children, and he must have for the 
adults eighteen skins, eleven for the children, three for 
his blanket — one blanket is enough for the entire fam- 
ily to sleep under — and about five for the mattress — a 
total of thirty -seven skins. This is more than many of 
them can secure during the short season of good fur ; 
but others may kill many more, now that the)^ are sup- 
plied with fire-arms, and those who have a surplus will 
always supply the actual needs of the more unfortu- 
nate; but often much suffering occurs before their 
wants are met. 

When a hunter kills a reindeer, the first thing he 
does is to skin it ; then he eats some of the warm, 
quivering flesh. This is a very important part of his 
task. He cuts it open and removes the entrails, and, 



ARCTIC COSTUMES. 141 

making a sack of the reticulated stomach, fills it with 
the blood that is found in the cavity of the body. 
He then regales himself with some of the spinach-like 
contents of the paunch, and, by way of filling in the 
time and the little crinkles in his stomach, cuts off and 
eats such little portions of fat as are exposed in the 
process of butchering. He then looks around for a 
stony place and deposits the carcass conveniently near 
it, together with the entrails and the bag of blood. 
Before cuttiag the body open it is turned back up, and 
the strip of muscles along each side of the backbone is 
removed, together with the sinew that covers it. Over 
this also lies the layer of tallow (tood-noo) when the 
animal is fat, as is usually the case in the summer and 
fall. The head is then severed from the body and 
placed on top of the rest of the meat, so that when the 
entire mass is covered with about a ton weight of large 
stones it is considered secure from the ravages of foxes 
and wolves. Not so, however, from the wolverine and 
bear — they can open any newly made cache ; but 
after the snows have fallen, and the stones and meat are 
frozen in one compact mass, it requires the ingenuity of 
man to remove it. This is done by loosening as large a 
stone as possible with the foot, and with this stone as a 
battering-ram another and larger one is loosened, which 
in turn serves as the battering-ram to loosen the others. 
Often it is found necessary to use a narrow, wedge-like 
stone as a lever, or to force the other stones apart. The 
cache is always made more conspicuous by leaviDg the 
antlers to protrude above the stones. 



142 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

After his meat has been secured and he has refreshed 
himself with a pipe, the hunter makes a bundle of the 
skin and the meat attached to the sinew and tallow, 
and wends his way to his tupic, where his wife or wives 
await him. His favorite wife takes the meat (oo-le-oo- 
she-nee) and strips the sinew (oo-le-oo-tic) from it by 
holdino; the meat in her teeth while she cuts the sinew 
from it with her knife, which is shaped like a currier's 
knife. She then chews off the meat that still adheres 
to the sinew until it is perfectly clean, and haugs it up 
to dry, when it is separated into its fibres and becomes 
thread (ever-loo). In the meantime the other wife, 
with her teeth, cleans the fleshy side of the skin of the 
meat and fat that may still adhere to it, and if the sun 
is still shining stretches the skin upon the ground to 
dry, holding it in place by small stones placed around 
the edge. At night the skins are brought into the 
tent to keep them away from the dogs, and they are 
again put out in the sun every day until thoroughly 
dried. They should be dried as soon after killing as 
possible, in order that they may be in the best condi- 
tion to preserve the fur. 

According to the old traditions and customs — the 
Mosaic law of the Esquimaux, so to speak — no work of 
any kind, except the drying of them, can be done upon 
new skins until the ice has formed sufficiently thickly 
upon the salt water to permit the hunter to seek the 
seal at his agloo or blow-hole. Until that time they 
are put carefully away in the tent, and have to be car- 
ried from point to point in their nomadic mode of life, 



ARCTIC COSTUMES. 143 

or cached away where tliey will be presumably secure 
from the ravages of dogs and wild auimals. When the 
season for making the new clothing arrives, that is, 
when the winter styles come out, then the work begins. 
The skins are dressed by the men, because it is hard 
work and beyond the power of most women, if they are 
required to be nicely dressed. Only one skin is pre- 
pared at a time. There is generally an old man at the 
head of each family of sons, or sons-in-law, or young 
men whom he has brought up and taught to hunt. The 
entire stock of the family is then spread out upon the 
ground some fine day, without regard to individual 
claims as having secured them, and are apportioned out 
by the patriarch — these for this son's outfit, these for 
his wife and children, those for the other hunter and 
his family, and these extra fine ones for the patriarch's 
own use and for his wives. 

The clothing for the men must be made first, for they 
are the lords, and then they need them first as they 
must go out hunting, ami should be made as com- 
fortable as possible. The two skins that are to be- 
come his inside coat, and the one for his inner trousers 
— his dress suit, as it were — are selected, and the wo- 
men dampen the fleshy side with water that is warmed 
in their mouths and squirted on the skin, to be spread 
evenly over the surface with their hands. They are 
then folded over, with the damp side in, and put aside 
where they will not freeze until the next day. After 
arising in the morning, and a breakfast of raw meat, fol- 
lowed by a pipe, he removes his coat, and, with noth- 



1 44 SCHWA TEA'S SEA B CH. 

ing on from his waist up but the usual dirt, he sits upon 
his bed, and with a bone scraper, called a suk-koo, goes 
over every particle of the skin upon the fleshy side, 
breaking it thoroughly and stretching it. Then conies 
the woman's first part of the work. It is not considered 
best to dry the skin over a lamp, because it has a ten- 
dency to harden it somewhat. It should be dried gradu- 
ally, and by the heat of the body, so the woman wraps 
it around the upper part of her body, next to her skin, 
and sits at work until it is thoroughly dried. One who 
has never had the experience of exhausting his caloric 
for the purpose of drying a wet blanket can have 
but a vague idea of the exquisite torture of sitting in a 
temperature far below zero with no covering upon his 
shoulders but a damp reindeer skin. It may not be un- 
healthy, and perhaps a physician of the water-cure 
practice might recommend it for certain ailments, but it 
would never become popular as a pleasurable pastime. 
At night the other two skins are put in the bed, one 
beneath and the other over the sleepers, and by niorn- 
ing are dry. But it seems almost a miracle that the 
occupants escape a severe attack of inflammatory rheu- 
matism. In the morning the man again peels for work, 
and with a suk-koo of stone, that has a sharp edge, 
scrapes off every particle of the fleshy membrane until 
the skin becomes soft and pliant, and assumes a delicate 
cream-like color. 

Only the skins of the does are used for clothiDg or 
the sleeping blanket. Buck skins, which are much less 
pliable, compose the underlayers of the bed, and these 



ARCTIC COSTUMES. 145 

are not scraped, but merely stretched on a frame while 
drying. The skin of a young buck is, however, some- 
times used for making the trousers, and is nearly as 
line in texture as the skin of the doe. The skins 
are now nearly ready for cutting out and sewing, 
but first have to be chewed, which is also women's 
work. 

A man can scrape two skins in a day, and some of 
the women — many of them are, indeed, very skillful 
with their crude, home-made needles — can make a coat 
in two days, and a pair of trousers in one day. Some 
of the young men, whose wives are good tailors, affect 
considerable ornamentation upon the inside coat ; but 
this is usually seen in the trimming that surrounds the 
lower edge and the border of the hood. Successive 
narrow strips of white and black fur, with very short 
hair, compose this trimming, and the lower edge is fin- 
ished with fringe made of thin skin, which is quite 
ornamental in effect. It also aids in keeping out the 
wind, and is, therefore, useful as well. The outside 
coat is sometimes surrounded with a border of white 
fur, with the fringe attached of longer hair than that 
upon the inner coat. Some of the belles, and indeed 
some of the women whose beauty is a thing of the past, 
wear a breastplate of bead work, which is further dec- 
orated with a fringe of reindeer teeth that has a most 
ghastly effect — they look so much like human teeth. 
The style of costume differs but little among the various 
tribes of North America ; but in any part of the coun- 
try the labor of producing the clothing is the same, and 
10 



146 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

if a man would dress well he must work hard — he can- 
not order his suit from a confiding tailor. It has its 
advantages and disadvantages. He has no tailor's bills 
to avoid the payment of, but he must depend upon 
himself and a loving and skilful wife. 






CHAPTER X. 

OVER MELTING SNOWS. 

We were now on the march from Cape Felix. Lieu- 
tenant Schwatka had kept about a mile east of Frank 
and Henry, who walked along the coast, and I about a 
mile and a half east of Lieutenant Schwatka. When 
about a mile and a half above our old camp at Wall 
Bay, he found a cairn very similar in construction to 
the one he found inland from Cape Felix. The top 
had been taken down, but in the first course of stones, 
covered and protected by those thrown from the top, 
he found a piece of paper with a carefully drawn hand 
upon it, the index finger pointing at the time in a 
southerly direction. The bottom part of the paper, on 
which rested the stone that held it in place, had com- 
pletely rotted off, so that if there had ever been any 
writing upon it, that, too, had disappeared. He called 
Frank to his assistance, and they spent several Lours 
in carefully examining the vicinity, without discovering 
anything else. It would seem, however, that whatever 
memorandum or guide it was intended for was only 
temporary, and was probably put there by some sur- 
veying or hunting party from the ships. 

We encamped on a point below Cape Maria Louisa, 

147 



148 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

after our next march, and after erecting the tent 
Owanork found a cache on the flats containing a 
wooden canteen, barrel-shaped, marked on one side 

<$> #> 

NO. 3, 

# # 

and on the other, 

# <$> 

G. B., 

♦ ^> 

under the Queen's broad arrow. There were also the 
staves of another canteen, a small keg, a tin powder 
can, several red cans marked 



GOLDNER'S PATENT, 



a narrow-bladed axe, several broken porter and wine 
bottles stamped 



# 

BRISTOL GLASS-WORKS, 

# 


<§> 

I 



and a few barrel staves. The cache was one evidently 
made by Netchillik Inuits, who had found the things 
along the coast. In fact, one of those we had inter- 
viewed mentioned having cached just such articles 
somewhere along the coast, and had afterward for- 
gotten the place. This is worthy of consideration, as 
indicating that our search was sufficiently compre- 
hensive to have discovered anything that had been 



OVER MELTING SNOWS. 149 

cached away by the crews of the ships between Cape 
Felix and Collinson Inlet within five or six miles of 
the coast. 

The following day Lieutenant Schwatka and I took 
Toolooah with us inland, and sent Frank and Henry 
down the coast toward Victory Point. From the top 
of a high hill, about six miles south-east from camp, we 
had an uninterrupted view for many miles in every 
direction, and swept the entire field with a spy-glass — 
but saw nothing like a cache or cairn. It was all a 
barren waste, with many ponds and lakes, some still 
covered with ice, and others, being more shallow, were 
entirely clear, as was the case with most of those near 
the coast. A few patches of snow could be seen here 
and there on the hill-sides. We had to cross one deep 
snowbank before reaching the crest of the hill, and 
upon our descent came upon a depression in the snow, 
which Toolooah recognized as a bear's igloo. A few 
patches of white wool near the entrance confirmed his 
opinion. I crawled in as far as I could, to see in what 
sort of a house the polar bear hibernated, and found it 
very much in size and shape like those of the limits. 
The only difference, as far as I could see, was that this 
was dug out of a snowbank, instead of being built 
upon the surface and afterward buried by the drift. 

The country over which we travelled this day was 
like all the rest we had seen in King William Land- 
broken and jagged clay stone, with intervening marshes. 
Little patches of brown and green moss, covered with 
delicate purple flowerets, peep up occasionally from 



150 



SCHWA TEA'S SEA R OH. 



among the piles of dry stones, though there is ap- 
parently no vestige of earth or mould to sustain their 
delicate lives. These flowers appear as soon as the 
snow melts from off the moss, and are most welcome to 
the eye of the traveller in this desolate country. How 







CURIOUS FORMATION OF CLAY-STONE. 



glad we will be to see the grass and trees of the tem- 
perate zone once more, after living so long in this void ! 
To-day, for the first, time I saw a few delicate little 
daisies, and the sight of them carried me in imagi- 
nation to the woods and fields of New Jersey. I 



OVER MELTING SNOWS. 151 

forgot the salt marshes and red " Jersey mud ; " but even 
the marshes there would look like flower-gardens after 
the clay-stone deserts of King William Land. 

We left Irving Bay on the 13th of July, after erect- 
ing a monument over the grave of Lieutenant Irving, 
and marking a stone to indicate the object of the cairn. 
We also buried a copy of the McClintock-Crozier rec- 
ord, together with the record of our work to date, ten 
feet north of the cairn, marking the fact on the tomb- 
stone. On our way back to Franklin Point we buried 
the skull found on our way up, but found no further 
bones until we reached Point Le Vesconte. We saw 
tenting places, both of white men and natives, at differ- 
ent points along the coast, and one cairn that had been 
torn down and contained nothing. We found an 
empty grave on a hill where we encamped, about four 
miles below this point, and a skull about a quarter of a 
mile distant from it, evidently having been dragged 
there by wild beasts. The only things found in the 
tomb were a large brass buckle and a percussion cap. 
Near by were traces of native tenting places. In fact, 
wherever we found graves we always found evidences 
that natives had encamped in the vicinity, like vul- 
tures. 

From this camp we marched to our first camping 
place on Erebus Bay, and from there had the most dis- 
mal day's work of the entire journey. In order to pass 
Erebus Bay on the land, we had to go a long distance 
inland to find a place where we could ford a wide and 
deep river that empties into it. Throughout the en- 



152 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

tire length of the river, on both sides, we had to wade 
through deep marshes, and at last crossed it through a 
swift current, the water reaching to our waists. A 
dense fog obscured the sun and hid the bay from view. 
It was impossible to ascertain our direction, aud we 
were compelled to follow all the windings of the river 
and coast until the fog lifted. In the meantime we 







CLAY-STONE MOUNDS. 



had no idea where the sled was, and as Toolooah had 
been told that we would make our usual ten miles' 
march, he might have gone that far before looking 
for us, and we have still a tedious tramp before us 
after reaching the bay. At last we heard the dogs, and 
finally saw the sled, still at a great distance on the ice. 
The gale that had been blowing all day long, and driv- 
ing the damp, cold mist into our faces, making it in- 



OVER MELTING SNOWS. 153 

tensely cold and disagreeable, had subsided, and we 
signalled Toolooah to join us. 

It was a joyful sight to see the sled once more along- 
side the shore, for, few as were the comforts it con- 
tained, it was our only home, and it meant the shelter 
and rest of our sleeping bags. We ate our dinner a 
little after midnight, and soon forgot our troubles in 
sleep. While Henry was cooking the last of our meat, 
he had occasion to leave the fire a few moments, when 
the dogs, seeing an opportunity for a raid, broke from 
their fastenings and poured down upon the culinary 
department like an army of devouring fiends. We 
were all iii bed at the time except Henry ; but Too- 
looah, well knowing the state of our larder, slipped 
out under the end of the tent, stark naked, from his 
sleeping bag, and poured such a shower of stones upon 
the dogs as to send them away howling. Fortunately 
they got nothing but some blubber, of which we have 
a good supply, and which is chiefly used to hasten the 
fire. 

The next day the fog and gale recommenced with 
great fury ; but as we were entirely without food, Too- 
looah went hunting, and came in about half-past nine 
in the evening with parts of three reindeer that he had 
succeeded in killing ; so we had a good warm meal 
about midnight, and turned in out of the bitter cold. 
Though not in exactly the position to be epicurean in 
our tastes, we could not fail to remark with great sat- 
isfaction that the reindeer were getting fat, and the 
quality of the meat improving thereby. A little later 



154 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

in the season they were exceedingly fat, the tallow, or 
tud-noo, as the Inuits call it, lying in great flakes, from 
half an inch to two and a half inches thick, along the 
back and over the rump. This tallow has a most de- 
licious flavor, and is eaten with the meat, either cooked 
or raw. The intestines are also incased in lace-work 
of tallow, which constitutes a palatable dish. Indeed 
there is no part of any animal used for food but what 
is eaten by the Esquimaux, and which we have par- 
taken of with great relish. The ribs of fat reindeer 
are also an especial delicacy. A dish made of the con- 
tents of the paunch, mixed with seal oil, looks like ice- 
cream, and is the Esquimau substitute for that con- 
fection. It has none of the flavor, however, of ice- 
cream, but, as Lieutenant Schwatka says, may be more 
likened to " locust sawdust and wild honey." The 
first time I partook of this dainty I had unfortunately 
seen it in course of preparation, which somewhat 
marred the relish with which I might otherwise have 
eaten it. The confectioner was a toothless old hag, 
who mixed the ingredients in a wooden dish dirtier 
than anything I ever saw before, and filled with rein- 
deer hairs, which, however, were not conspicuous when 
well mingled with the half-churned grass and moss. 
She extracted the oil from the blubber by crunching it 
between her old gums, and spat it into the dish, stir- 
ring it with her fingers until the entire mass became 
white, and of about the consistency of cottage cheese. 
I ate some, merely to say I had eaten it, and not to 
offend my entertainers, but I cannot say I enjoyed it. 



OVER MELTING SNOWS. 155 

We left camp at a quarter past one o'clock the fol- 
lowing day, our starting having to conform somewhat 
to the state of the tide, as at high tide we cannot reach 
the ice. The sledging was simply awful, and poor Too- 
looah was having a hard time of it and without a mur- 
mur or discontented look. I expected he would urge 
us to abridge our search, as there seemed to be immi- 
nent danger of the ice breaking up. But he constantly 
told ns to go on and search as much as we thought nec- 
essary, and leave the sledging to him ; he would do the 
best he could. It was a pleasure to see him do it so 
cheerfully. There is something reassuring even in the 
tone in which he addresses the dogs. Many a time we 
have started to go through a place that seemed abso- 
lutely impassable until I heard that cheery cry, " Why- 
ah-woo-ha-hu-ah ! " and saw him bend his own shoulder 
to the task. It seemed all right then. Even the 
dogs were more hopeful, and pulled with renewed 
energy. 

We found the coast on the south side of Erebus Bay 
cut into long, narrow points, separated by deep inlets, 
that made the work of searching much greater. All 
along the shore at the bottom of the inlets we found 
pieces of navy blue cloth, which seemed to have been 
washed up by high tides. Quantities of driftwood 
also were seen ; but we already had as much on the 
sled as, in the present condition of the ice, we could 
carry. At the bottom of one of the deepest inlets or 
bays, the men found the wreck of a ship's boat strewn 
along the beach, together wdth pieces of cloth, iron, 



156 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

canvas, and human bones. We gathered together por- 
tions of four skeletons, a number of buttons, some fish 
lines, copper and iron bolts and rivets, the drag rope of 
a sled, some sheet-lead, some shot, bullets, and wire 
cartridges ; pieces of clothing, broken medicine bottles, 
thee harger of a powder-flask, an iron lantern, and a 
quantity of miscellaneous articles that would naturally 
form part of the outfit of such an expedition. The 
bones were prepared for burial, and the relics gathered 
together in a pile, from which to select a few to take 
away with us. The prow and stern-post of the boat 
were in good condition, and a few clinkered boards 
still hung together, which measured twenty-eight feet 
and six inches to where they were broken off at each 
end, showing it to have been a very large boat. 

We spent several hours here, gathering together the 
various articles, in a thick fog and strong north-west wind 
that came down across the heavy ice-fields of Victoria 
Strait and Melville Sound, and was intensely cold. We 
then went to the next point south of us at eleven o'clock, 
and for four long, weary hours walked up and down 
waiting for the sled to come up, while new ice was 
rapidly forming in the margin of the salt water as the 
tide went down. When Toolooah at last arrived, we 
found he had been compelled to abandon the stoves and 
fireAvood, as it was impossible to handle so heavy a sled 
during the present wretched condition of the ice. It 
was after four o'clock when we got to bed, our blankets 
and sleeping bags all wet, as it was impossible to keep 
them out of the water that everywhere covers the ice. 



OVER MELTING SNOWS. 15 7 

The next day we remained in camp to bury the 
remains found at the boat place, and during the even- 
ing I went hunting with Toolooah, who killed two fine 
bucks. We got back to camp, tired and sleepy, at 
half -past two in the morning. The sky was clear and 
the sunset supreme. It was nothing unusual for one 
from the temperate zone to see a magnificent sunset, 
but to see a grand combination of sunset and sunrise 
in one continuous representation was glorious beyond 
description. The next day Toolooah returned to the 
island off the mouth of the little bay, and brought on 
the things he had abandoned there ; while we searched 
the vicinity with the hope of finding the second boat 
place, which the natives mentioned as being about a 
quarter of a mile from the one seen by McClintock. If 
this is the boat seen by him, it is certainly a long way 
from the position represented on the maps. We found 
no trace of a second boat place anywhere in the neigh- 
borhood, though we made an extensive search for it. 
We found a deep inlet entering near Point Little, too 
wide and deep to cross. 

At a quarter past five the next morning, Lieutenant 
Schwatka and I started on our search along the coast, 
leaving the men to assist Toolooah in loading the sled 
and making a selection of what to abandon, if anything 
had to be left, and to follow later. We had not got 
more than a mile on our way when we heard a gun 
fired from camp, and, turning around, saw Frank run- 
ning after us. We waited for him, and were surprised 
to hear that the tide, instead of falling, was actually 



158 



SCHWA TEA 'S SEARCH. 



rising, and that it would be impossible to load the sled. 
We therefore had to return to camp. In the meantime 
it commenced raining, and when we reached the tent 
we found the water nearly up to the door, though it 
was the hour for low tide. About two hours after- 
ward Lieutenant Sckwatka went outside the hut, and 




THE BREAKING UP OF THE ICE. 



almost immediately called for his glasses, saying he 
thought the ice was breaking up. We all went out 
and saw the ice coming in from the Straits, and piling 
up in great masses. Already the sled was crowded 
high up in the air, and one of the stoves occupied a 
lofty position poised on the pinnacle of a hummock. 
Toolooah at once got upon a loose cake of ice, and 



OVER MELTING SNOWS. 159 

pulled himself out to the edge of the floe, aud brought 
the sled and stove clown to where, when the ice came 
in closer, they could be pulled ashore, and were thus 
rescued from their imminent peril. 

It was now quite evident that our sledging was over 
for the season, and we were stuck here with all our 
heavy stuff. All day long we coukl hear the booming 
of the ice in the distance, as the great fields were torn 
asunder, and we felt thankful that Toolooah had not 
already got started when the break came, or he would 
have been in great clanger. At any rate we might 
have lost our sled, together with the dogs and all our 
baggage, which would have been a sad affair for us. 
We determined to cross the land to Terror Bay, and 
from there send clown to Gladman Point, or that vi- 
cinity, all that the dogs and men could carry, while 
Lieutenant Schwatka and I waited for their return, and 
in the meantime searched the coast back from Terror 
Bay to the inlet near Point Little. 

Terror Bay was reached on the 3d of August, after a 
tedious journey across the narrow neck of land that 
separates it from Erebus Bay. Our camps were not 
far apart, as everything had to be carried upon our 
backs or upon the dogs. It was necessary to make two, 
and often three, trips between camps before everything 
was brought up, consequently only two of the Frank- 
lin stoves were brought along. The largest and heavi- 
est of these Henry took in charge, and carried all the 
way overstrapped to his back like a knapsack. Too- 
looah brought the empty sled over, with all the 



160 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

dogs, after removing the bone shoes from the run- 



ners. 



While at our first camp overland, Toolooah had re- 
turned to the coast with the dogs to bring up some fire- 
wood, and, not expecting to see any reindeer, had left 
his gun in camp. But near the coast he came upon a 




THE MAKCH BOTJTHWARB. 



she-bear with her half -grown cub. Nothing daunted, 
he drove the old bear off into the sea with stones, and 
killed the cub with a handleless snow-knife. Henry 
and Frank, with all the limits, left us on the 6th of 
August to reach the rest of our party, whom they ex- 
pected to find somewhere east of Grladman Point. 



OVER MELTING SNOWS. 161 

Frank and Henry remained there and Toolooah re- 
turned with the dogs, and moved what we could to the 
same point. 

Lieutenant Schwatka and I were then left alone to 
provide for ourselves until Toolooah's return, which was 
on the 1st of September. "We kept half of the double 
tent, and one of the dogs to help us when we moved 
camp, and to cany our meat. Reindeer were plentiful, 
and we killed eight, which kept us well supplied with 
food. We could have killed many more had it been 
necessary. This was altogether the pleasantest part of 
our experience in the Arctic. During the time we 
were alone we searched the neighboring coast as far 
west as Cape Crozier, but found only one skeleton. 
The tent place spoken of by Ahlangyah and others 
— and which we confidently expected to find with- 
out much trouble, marked by quantities of human 
bones and clothing scattered far around, as at the com- 
pany places at Irving Bay and Cape Felix, and the boat 
place on Erebus Bay — could not be found, though Lieu- 
tenant Schwatka passed over the spot that the natives 
spoke of as the site. This was a great disappoint- 
ment to us, and seemed unaccountable until we subse- 
quently learned from them that it was so close to the 
water that all traces of it had disappeared. When 
we again met the natives we saw one man who had 
been there not a great while ago, and said there was 
nothing to be seen where he previously saw many 
skeletons and other indications of the white men's hos- 
pital tent. 
11 



162 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

In the division of labor at our lonely camps the 
searching devolved chiefly upon Lieutenant Schwatka 
and the cooking and hunting upon me, though he also 
killed several reindeer, and I occasionally assisted in 
the searching. Our diet was exclusively reindeer meat, 
eaten either raw or cooked, and, as the animals were 
very fat, there was nothing to complain of in that re- 
spect. The quantity that we ate was simply astonish- 
ing ; in fact, we found it easier to adapt ourselves to 
that phase of Inuit life than any other. 

Our greatest discomfort arose from the lack of suffi- 
cient shoes and stockings. It requires women always 
to keep you comfortable in that respect. Natives never 
go anywhere without their women. Our shoes were 
completely worn, beyond possibility of repair, and the 
hair was entirely worn off our stockings. The conse- 
quence was that walking was torture. I could gen- 
erally manage to patch up my shoes so that I could 
start out hunting when necessary, well knowing they 
would last only for a short distance, but trusting to my 
ambition in the chase to keep me going, and the neces- 
sity of the case to get me back to the tent. 

Most of the time we were confined to the tent by 
storms and fog, and only a few days were fit for the 
prosecution of our work. Unfortunately, the only 
thermometer we brought from Cape Herschel was lost, 
with other articles, from the sled in an ice crack near 
Wall Bay, while on our trip to Cape Felix, so we could 
keep no record of the temperature. I noticed, how- 
ever, that there was scarcely a night when there was 



OVER MELTING SNOWS. 163 

not a thin sheet of ice formed near the margin of the 
ponds. On the night of the 28th it froze to the depth 
of about three-quarters of an inch, and the next night 
about an inch and a half. It was sufficiently cold at 
any time, when the wind blew, to remind us that we 
were in the frigid zone. Our experience at this place 
was of interest in showing that white men can take 
care of themselves in this country, independently 
of the natives ; but at the same time the presence 
and assistance of natives add much to the traveller's 
comfort. 

Several days before Toolooah's return we were anx- 
iously looking for him, as he was to bring in shoes and 
stockings, and the time was rapidly passing in which 
we could complete our search. We had already fin- 
ished what was required toward the west, and as far 
east as was feasible from this camp. We had therefore 
made up our minds to move slowly eastward on the 
1st of September, if he did not get back on the last 
day of August. A fierce gale, with snow, kept us in 
camp on that day ; but the returning party, consisting 
of Toolooah's family with Equeesik, Mitcolelee and 
Frank, came in notwithstanding the storm, so great was 
their anxiety concerning our safety and comfort. It is 
needless to say that we were glad to see them, and 
when we heard Toolooah shout from the other side of 
the hill on which our tent was pitched, it seemed the 
pleasantest sound I ever heard. The Inuits had never 
known white men to live alone in their country as we 
had, and were afraid we were very hungry ; but we 



164 SGHWATEA'S SEARCH. 

relieved their anxiety in that respect by giving them a 
hearty meal of cooked meat. 

We learned from them that the Inuits were all on 
the main-land, in the neighborhood of Thunder Cove, 
and that Joe had been, and still was, very sick with 
rheumatism. Henry remained there with them, and 
prosecuted the search of Starvation Cove, building a 
monument over the remains found there, and depositing 
a record that Lieutenant Schwatka had sent to him for 
that purpose. Before he got there, however, Joe and a 
party of Netchilliks had been searching the spot, and 
in a pile of stones found a small pewter medal, com- 
memorative of the launch of the steamer Great Britain, 
in 1843, and among the seaweed some pieces of blanket 
and a skull. This was all that could be seen at this 
memorable spot. 



CHAPTEE XL 

AMATEUR ESQUIMAUX. 

The prosecution of our search had been largely de- 
pendent upon our imitation of the life of the Esqui- 
maux, and I should omit an important chapter in " Arc- 
ticology " if I did not leave on record the story of our 
exploits as amateur Esquimaux in subsisting upon the 
resources of the country through which our little ex- 
ploring party passed, going and coming, in pursuit of 
its chief object. The seal was our beef and the walrus 
our mutton in this long journey. 

Seal-hunting varies with the time of the year and 
the nature of the ice, for the seals are seldom killed ex- 
cept upon or through the ice. In the warm, still days 
of spring they come up through their blow-holes in the 
ice and enjoy a roll in the snow or a quiet nap in the 
sun. Then they are killed with comparative case. The 
hunter gets as close as possible upon the smooth ice 
without alarming his prey, the distance varying from 
four hundred to one hundred yards. He then lies down, 
or, more correctly speaking, reclines upon a small piece 
of bear-skin, which, as he moves, is dragged along and 
kept under him as protection against the cold and wet. 

His weight rests chiefly on his left hip, the knee 

165 



166 SCHWATKA'8 SEARCH. 

bent and the leg drawn up beneath him upon the bear- 
skin mat. As long as the seal is looking toward him 
the hunter keeps perfectly still, or raising his head 
soon drops it upon his shoulder, uttering a noise simi- 
lar to that produced by a seal blowing. 

When the seal is satisfied, from a careful inspection, 
that no danger threatens, its head drops down upon the 
ice and it indulges in a few winks, but suddenly rises 
and gazes around if it hears the least noise or sees the 
least motion anywhere. The hunter takes advantage 
of the nap to hitch himself along by means of his right 
foot and left hand, preserving his recumbent position 
all the time, and if detected by the seal either stops 
suddenly and blows, or flops around like a seal enjoying 
a sun bath, as his experience suggests. In this way he 
can usually approach near enough to shoot his prey 
with a rifle, or strike it with a seal spear or oo-nar. 
Often, however, just as he is about to shoot or spear 
his game, it slips suddenly into the sea through its hole, 
upon the very verge of which it rests, seldom venturing 
further than a foot or two from its safe retreat. If 
they could only rest contented with a fair shot, the 
Inuits would probably secure more game than they 
now do, for the most of those I have seen thsm lose in 
this way went down after the hunter had approached 
within easy range — say twelve or fifteen yards. They 
are so anxious, however, to make a sure thing of it that 
they often try to get too near. I have frequently 
timed an Inuit as he started for a seal on the ice, and 
found it takes about an hour from the time he starts in 



AMATEUR ESQUIMAUX. 167 

pursuit uutil the shot is fired. It is amusing to watch 
the countenance of the seal through a spy-glass. They 
have such an intelligent and human look that you can 
almost imagine what they are thinking. For instance, 
you will see one start up suddenly and look at the 
hunter, who by that time is perfectly still, with an in- 
tense scrutiny that seems to say, " I declare I was almost 
sure I saw that move that time, but I must have been 
mistaken." Then, with a drowsy look, almost a yawn, 
down goes his head, and the hunter begins to hitch 
himself along again very cautiously. Suddenly up 
goes the seal's head so quickly that the hunter hasn't 
time to subside as before, but begins to roll about, blow 
off steam, and lift its feet around like a seal flapping 
its tail, and at a little distance it is really difficult to 
tell which is the seal and which the man. Then you 
imagine a smile on the face of the seal, as though 
he was saying to himself, " I caught him that time. 
What a fool I was to be frightened, though. I 
thought it was a man, and it's only an ookjook." 

When the hunter at last reaches the point at which 
he considers it safe to risk a shot, you hear the report 
of his gun and see him immediately spring to his feet 
and rush for his prey. If his bullet strikes the head or 
neck of the animal it rarely gets away, though some- 
times even then it slips out of reach, so close do they 
keep to their holes. If it is hit anywhere else it almost 
invariably escapes the hunter, though it may not es- 
cape death. Often the hunter reaches the hole in time 
to seize his prey by the hind flipper just as it is passing 



168 SCHWATKA'S 8EARGH. 

down into the water. I remember standing and gazing 
mournfully down into a hole one day through which a 
seal that I had shot had just escaped, though his blood 
tinged the water and edges of the ice, and while I was 
lamenting my ill-luck 1 heard a splash behind me and 
turned in time to see the seal come up through another 
hole. He looked awfully sick, and didn't see me until I 
had him by the nipper, sprawling on his back, at a safe 
distance from the hole. This was quite good luck for 
me, for such an opportunity rarely occurs, though I 
have occasionally known Toolooah to recover a lost 
one in the same way. 

When struck with a spear they seldom escape, for 
the line is fastened to the side of the spear-head, which 
detaches itself from the staff and holds in the flesh like 
a harpoon. Sometimes, however, the seal will slip 
away after the spear is thrown, and, instead of striking 
him, it strikes the ice where he had been lying. This 
is very aggravating after the cold and tedious labor of 
working up upon it has been accomplished ; but the 
Esquimau bears his misfortune with equanimity. It is 
seldom that he says more than " ma-muk'-poo now " 
(no good), or " mar-me-an'-ner " (which means " angry," 
or is an expression used when one is angry). He 
gathers up his weapons, sits down and lights his pipe, 
and after a recuperative smoke moves on in search of 
another opportunity to go through the same process. 

Sometimes he is fortunate enough to find a seal abso- 
lutely asleep upon the ice, and then he can walk right 
up alongside of him and put the rifle barrel to his ear 



AMATEUR ESQUIMAUX. 169 

before firiDg. In some parts of the Arctic, as at Iwillik 
(Repulse Bay), there is a species called " wandering 
seal," which in the spring are known to come upon the 
ice in great numbers, usually through a large crack, and 
move quite a distance from the open water. This 
affords the natives a grand opportunity, and the entire 
village — men, women and children — repair to the spot, 
and by getting between the seals and the water, cut off 
their escape, so that they fall an easy prey to the clubs 
with which they are slaughtered by the men. In this 
way they sometimes kill as many as seventy-five or a 
hundred in a single day. But the haunts of the "wan- 
dering seal " are not found everywhere ; they are fa- 
vored localities. It is generally pretty hard work to 
kill a seal. 

During the winter months the seals do not come out 
upon the ice, and are then hunted usually with dogs 
that are trained for the purpose. The hunter, equipped 
with his spear-shaft in his hand, and his line, with 
the barbed spear-head attached, thrown over his 
shoulder, starts out, leading his dog, whose harness 
is on and the trace wound several times around his 
neck, so that but a yard or two is left to trail along 
the snow. When they reach the wide stretch of 
smooth ice that usually lines the shore in these re- 
gions, the dog is allowed to work to windward, and 
when his sensitive nostrils are saluted with the scent 
of a seal he indicates the fact by the excited manner 
in which he endeavors to reach the spot from which 
the odor emanates. The hunter restrains the dog's 



170 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

ardor, but follows his guidance until the spot is found 
at which the seal's blow-hole is situated. Often it is 
entirely covered with snow, but sometimes a small hole 
about an inch in diameter is seen. The blow-hole is a 
spot to which the seal resorts to get an occasional puff 
of fresh air, and here the hunter awaits him in order 
to secure him for the larder. When first found, the 
hunter merely marks the spot for a future visit by 
building around it a wall of snow blocks to cut off the 
wind, and making a seat of similar material upon 
which to rest while waiting for the blow. This is the 
tedious proceeding in the life of an Esquimau, or at 
least would be for a civilized person so situated. 
Sometimes the seal comes up within half an hour or 
an hour, but often the hunter stands or sits by the 
hole all night long, and sometimes for a day or two. 
I have heard of instances in which they sat for two 
days and a half waiting for the seal to put in an ap- 
pearance. In fact, Papa told me that he once sat for 
three days at one seal hole, and then it did not come 
up. During all this time the hunter must keep per- 
fectly still — that is, he must not walk around or move 
his feet off the ice. He can move his body to keep up 
a circulation of the blood, or move his feet inside his 
stockings if they are sufficiently loose to allow of such 
motion, but no noise must occur which would alarm 
the game if in the vicinity of the hunter. 

Some funny incidents occur at these prolonged sit- 
tings. I remember one experienced old seal-hunter who 
told me that when he was a young man he was once 



AMATEUR ESQUIMAUX. 171 

out all night watching a blow-hole and got very sleepy 
— so sleepy, indeed, that he could not keep his eyes 
open. After vainly endeavoring to arouse himself, he 
finally succumbed, and, falling asleep, tumbled over 
backward and wandered in the land of dreams. Sud- 
denly awakening he saw what he supposed to be a man 
with hostile intentions standing and looking down upon 
him through the dim starlight. Every time he moved 
in the least, in order to get up, the strange man moved 
in a threatening sort of way, and he had to lie still 
again. At last, after getting thoroughly awakened, he 
discovered what he had taken for an enemy, and had 
caused him such alarm, was only his own leg sticking 
up in the air and resting against the snow-block seat 
from which he had tumbled when he fell asleep. An- 
other hunter was overcome by sleep at a seal hole, and 
awakened by the consciousness of danger, saw a great 
white bear watching the hole, which in his sleepiness 
he had neglected. The hunter had fallen behind his 
snow seat in such a way as to be concealed from the 
bear, which had been attracted by the scent of the seal 
and arrived just at the moment when the young man 
awoke. To jump to his feet and fly from the vicin- 
ity of danger was, with the frightened Esquimau, the 
work of a minute, and so startled the bear that it also 
made oif in the opposite direction as fast as feet would 
carry it. 

When the seal comes up to breathe it stays about 
ten minutes, which gives the hunter plenty of time to 
get his spear and line ready. He then must take accu- 



172 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

rate aim and make a vigorous thrust through the little 
hole, withdrawing the spear quickly and holding the 
line tightly, so as to exhaust the game as much as pos- 
sible before the line is all run out. The end is wound 
tightly around his right arm, and he sits down, bracing 
himself to resist the struggles of the animal to free it- 
self. It usually makes three desperate efforts to escape, 
and then the hunter begins to haul in on his line, 
and, breaking away the snow around the hole, to admit 
of the passage of the body, lands his prey on the ice. 

The next operation at this stage of the proceedings 
is to make a slit in the stomach of the sometimes still 
breathing animal, and to cut off some of the warm liver 
(ting^-yer), with a slice or two of blubber (oks-zook), 
wherewith the hunter regales himself with a hearty 
luncheon. Then the entrails are drawn out and passed 
through the fingers of the left hand to remove the con- 
tents, and are afterward braided and returned to the 
cavity of the stomach, and the slit drawn together and 
pinned with a little ivory pin (too-bit-tow'-yer) made for 
the purpose. The dog is allowed to lick the blood 
from the snow, but gets no more for his share unless an 
opportunity occurs to help himself when his master's 
back is turned. The trace is then attached to the nose 
of the dead seal, which is thus dragged into camp by 
the faithful dog, the hunter walking alongside urging 
the dog by his voice, and occasionally assisting him 
over a drift or amid hummocky ice. 

The seal in the early spring builds a habitation in 
the snow over and around the hole through which it 



AMATEUR ESQUIMAUX. 173 

breathes, and here its young are born and live until 
old enough to venture into the water. This house is 
called an oglow, and is constructed very much like an 
Esquimau igloo in shape, though it is more irregular 
and has ramifications that extend to neighboring holes. 
These oglows are found with the assistance of dogs, as 
previously described, or by prodding with a seal spear 
the hillocks of snow that look like seals' houses. 
When a hunter finds an og-low during the season that 
the young seals are living in them, he immediately 
breaks in the roof with his heel in search of the little 
one, which usually remains very quiet even when the 
hunter looks down and pokes his head through the 
broken roof. The young seal is then easily killed with 
the spear and dragged out on the ice, and the hunter 
waits for the mother, which is never absent a long 
time from its baby. The young seal is generally cut 
open as soon as killed, and its little stomach examined 
for milk, which is esteemed a great luxury by the Es- 
quimaux. When young, the seal is covered with long, 
white hair, very much like coarse wool. This skin was 
at one time very much used in making clothing, but 
lately has not been much in vogue among the natives, 
though occasionally coats and trousers of this material 
may still be seen. The whalers esteem it highly as an 
adjunct to woollen clothing, as being sufficiently warm 
for those who are living on shipboard, yet not so warm 
as reindeer clothing, which becomes oppressive in high 
temperature. 

The older seals have short, smooth hair, of a yellow- 



174 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

ish-gray color, with large black spots on the back, 
which become smaller and less frequent on the sides, 
and disappear entirely before reaching the belly. The 
finest quality of seal-skin in the eastern North Amer- 
ican waters, which are devoid of fur seal, is that of the 
kos-se-gear, or fresh-water seal, which is found at or 
near the mouths of nearly all rivers emptying into the 
sea. This species of seal is marked very much like the 
common seal (net-chuk), except that the spots are of a 
more positive and a glossier black, while the body 
color is whiter, making a more decided contrast. The 
hair is also of a much finer texture, and is as soft as 
the finest quality of velvet. These are only killed in 
the early summer, and their skins are extensively used 
for summer clothing by those Esquimaux who have not 
come much in contact with the whalers. When they 
have been in communication with the ships, they are 
usually, during the summer months, clad in cast-off 
clothing of the sailors — that is, the men are. And 
funny enough they look, with the curious methods 
they have of wearing civilized costumes. They always 
choose a shirt for the exterior garment, and wear it 
with the tail outside. The women seldom are seen 
with any civilized clothing, the only exception being, 
probably, a few of the natives of Cumberland Sound 
and Akkolead, near North Bay. The finest quality of 
kossegear skins I have seen were killed in Hudson's 
Strait. They are much superior in texture and color 
to those of the tributaries to Hudson's Bay. The next 
skin in quality is that of the ki-od-del-lik, or " jumping " 



AMATEUR ESQUIMAUX. 175 

seal, or, as it is sometimes called, " spotted " seal. This 
is very similar in color and texture to the fresh-water 
seal, except that the black in the back and sides is in 
great splotches that are odd, bnt very pretty in effect. 
Kioddelliks are seen in great numbers in Hudson's 
Bay and Strait, but are not often killed, as they gen- 
erally keep pretty well out from shore. They are 
often seen by the whalers, playing like a school of por- 
poises, whose actions they simulate somewhat, except 
that they make a clean breach from the water every 
time they jump. 

The nets-che-wuk, " bladder-nosed " seal, has a skin 
which is a grade or two superior to the netchuk, and is 
much larger. It, however, lacks the fineness and gloss 
of the kossegear and kioddellik. 

The largest of the seal species is the ookjook. Its 
skin is thick and coarse, with coarse, short hair. It is 
not used in the manufacture of clothing, except for the 
soles of rum-nigs (boots). It is, however, employed to 
make walrus and seal lines, lashings for their sleds, 
and traces for dog harness. It is as much used for this 
purpose as is the skin of the walrus, which it much re- 
sembles. In making lines from ookjook or walrus skin, 
a piece is cut from the neck or body by making cross 
sections — that is, without slitting it down the belly, the 
piece for the line being removed from the body in a 
broad band. The blubber is then cut from the fleshy 
side, and the skin is soaked for a short time in hot 
water, after which the hair is readily removed with an 
ood-loo, the semicircular knife that is the one constant 



176 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

and only tool of tlie Esquimau woman. A line is then 
made by cutting this piece of skin into one continuous 
strip, half au inch wide, by following around and around 
the band. The line is then about twenty-five yards 
long, and while still green is stretched between two 
large rocks, where it is submitted to the greatest ten- 
sion that the limited mechanical appliances of these 
savages can supply. While so situated the line is care- 
fully trimmed with a sharp knife to remove all fatty 
j^articles, and to partially round off the sharp edges. 

It is then allowed to remain until thoroughly dry, 
when it is taken from the stretcher and coiled up in 
the owners tent until he has leisure to finish it and 
render it pliable. This is accomplished by the slow 
and tedious process of chewing. Traces and lines for 
the seal spears are usually made of sealskin, and in the 
same way as walrus and ookjook lines. They also re- 
quire chewing before being sufficiently pliable for use. 
Indeed, all skins require to be chewed before they are 
made into clothing. The men chew their lines, but all 
other skins are chewed by the women and young girls. 
It is one circumstance that is early remarked by the 
visitor in the Arctic regions, that the middle-aged and 
old people have teeth that are worn down to mere stubs 
by the constant chewing of skins. A pair of ookjook 
soles, before being submitted to the chewing process, 
are nearly as thick and much stiffer than the sole- 
leather of civilized commerce, and it requires the leisure 
hours of two days to reduce them to the necessary plia- 
bility for use. It is not only the action of the grinders 



AMATEUR ESQUIMAUX. 177 

that brings them to the proper state, but the warm 
breath and saliva play an effectual part in the process. 
This is usually their visiting work. "When they go to 
each other's tupics or igloos to make calls, instead of 
taking their knitting, the belles of the polar circle take 
their chewing. It does not add much to the charms of 
female society to see them sitting before you gnawing 
and sucking a pair of ookjook soles, or twisting an 
entire seal-skin into a roll, one end of which is thrust 
►into a capacious mouth to undergo the masticating 
and lubricating process. But it does increase your 
respect for them to see with what cheerfulness these 
women apply themselves to their exceedingly disagree- 
able labor. 

Seal-skins for making coats and trousers are dressed 
with the hair on, the fleshy membranes, or " mum'-me, " 
being cut off with an oodloo before they are washed, 
stretched, and dried. One good warm spring day is 
sufficient to dry a seal-skin, which for this purpose is 
stretched over the ground or snow by means of long- 
wooden pins, which keep it elevated two or three inches, 
thus allowing the air to circulate underneath it. Some- 
times in the early spring, before the sun .attains suf- 
ficient power, a few skins for immediate use are dried 
over the lamps in the igloos. This, however, is re- 
garded as a slow and troublesome process, and the open 
air is preferred when available. A few seal-skins and 
walrus skins, from which the hair has been neatly re- 
moved, are left to hang in the wind and sun for several 

days, until they acquire a creamy whiteness, and are 
12 



178 SCHWATKA' 8 SEARCH. 

then used for trimming. The Kinnepatoos, who are 
the dandies of the Esquimau nation, tan nearly all their 
skins white. Their walrus and seal lines, and indeed 
their sled lashings and dog harness, are sometimes 
white, as well as the trimmings of their boots and 
gloves. Nearly all the varieties of seal are sometimes 
killed during the summer and fall, while swimming in 
the open water; but though often seen when the 
weather is calm, the Esquimaux seldom fire at them, 
because until the latter part of September they will 
sink to the bottom, though killed instantly by a shot 
through the head or neck. 

At a later period a funny incident occurred. We 
were at Marble Island. The Aveather was calm, so that 
seal heads were sprinkled plentifully upon the surface 
of the water. This inspired Lieutenant Schwatka to try 
his skill. So, fetching his rifle from the cabin and wip- 
ing his eye-glasses, he shot at a large head about a hun- 
dred yards from the vessel. The seal made a desperate 
effort to get down in a hurry, but was evidently badly 
hurt, and showed a good deal of blood before it accom- 
plished its descent. Presently it came up again, and a 
boat was lowered to pick it up, but it managed to es- 
cape capture, though it was evident that it would soon 
die. After breakfast the next morning, when we went 
on deck, the water was still quite smooth, and presently 
we were surprised to see what appeared to be a dead 
seal floating in on the tide. There was no doubt that 
this was the seal that Lieutenant Schwatka had killed 
the previous night, and again the boat was lowered to 



AMATEUR ESQUIMAUX. 179 

secure it. No precautions were deemed necessary to 
avoid making a noise, and when the boat came along- 
side one of the men threw down his oar, rolled up his 
sleeves, and stooped down to lift the carcass on board. 
His surprise may be imagined when, after passing his 
arms around it and proceeding to lift it, he felt it sud- 
denly begin to struggle and slip from his hold and dive 
below the surface, while a loud shout went up from the 
spectators. It was not Lieutenant Schwatka's seal, but 
an entirely well one that was sound aslee}3 when it felt 
the rude embrace of the sailor. 

The seal is an exceedingly useful animal to the Es- 
quimau, for it not only supplies him with food and 
clothing, but its blubber furnishes the fuel for cooking 
its flesh, lighting the igloo, and drying its skin before 
making into clothing. The skin also is made into dosr 
harness and traces, whip lashes, boots and shoes, gun- 
covers, water-pails, bags for the storing of oil and blub- 
ber, and his boats are covered with it. Seal-skin bags, 
inflated and fastened to walrus lines, are used in hunt- 
ing walrus and whales, and finally, the summer dwell- 
ing of the Esquimau is a tent made of seal-skin. A 
single tent, or tupic, as it is called by them, is com- 
posed of from five to ten skins, which are split — that 
is, the mumme is split off and dried separately from 
the skin. The rear portion of the tent is made of 
the skins with the hairy side out, while the front is 
made of the transparent mumme, which admits the 
light almost as freely as if made of ground glass. The 
skin portion is impervious to water, but the mumme 



180 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

admits the rain about as readily as it does the sunlight. 
This is no objection, in the mind of the Esquimau, for 
it is something he is thoroughly accustomed to. In the 
summer his tent is wet with rain, and in the winter, 
whenever the air in the igloo is raised to an endurable 
temperature, the roof melts and is constantly dripping 
ice- water down his back or upon his blankets. 



CHAPTER XII. 



WALKUS DIET. 



The staple food of the Esquimaux of North Hud- 
son's Bay and Melville Peninsula is wick (walrus). 
The season for killing the walrus lasts nearly all the 
year — that is, all the time when the natives are not 
inland hunting reindeer, in order to secure sufficient 
skins to make their winter clothing and sleeping 
blankets. The Kinnepatoos, who inhabit the shore of 
Hudson's Bay in the vicinity of Chesterfield Inlet and 
its tributaries, are the only tribe I know of who live 
almost exclusively upon the reindeer. Indeed, they 
only kill a sufficient number of walrus and seal to pro- 
vide them with shoes and gloves for summer wear. 
The Netchillik and Ookjoolik tribes live mostly by 
sealing, and as they are not provided with fire-arms, 
find it almost impossible to kill reindeer when the 
snow is on the ground. The Ooquesiksillik people, 
who live on Back's Great Fish River and its tributary, 
Hayes River, live almost exclusively on fish. The 
Iwillik tribe, that inhabits the coast of Hudson's Bay 
from near the mouth of Chesterfield Inlet to Repulse 
Bay, the Igloolik, Amitigoke, Sekoselar, Akkolear, and, 

indeed, all the various tribes along the northern shore 

181 



182 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

of Hudson's Strait, Fox Channel, and Southampton 
Island, rely chiefly upon walrus meat for their food. 
The walrus is one of the largest animals that inhabits 
these waters, and when one is killed it supplies a quan- 
tity of food. An average-sized walrus weighs about a 
thousand or twelve hundred pounds, and when it is 
remembered that every particle is eaten except the 
hardest bones, the reader will see that it is a valuable 
prize for the captors. The blood, blubber, intestines, 
even the hide, the undigested contents of the stomach, 
and the softer bones, as well as the oesophagus and 
windpipe, are all eaten, raw or cooked. If my expe- 
rience might be mentioned, I would say that all of 
these enumerated delicacies I have eaten and relished. 
Walruses are usually found resting upon the ice near 
the edge of the floe or the shore piece, unless there is 
much loose ice near it, in which case they will most 
always be found on the larger cakes of loose ice. 

There they are hunted in boats, or when the wind 
is from such a direction as to keep the pack on to the 
floe they can be successfully hunted on foot. The 
method of hunting is precisely the same as that already 
described in reference to hunting seal, except that the 
spear is generally used in preference to the rifle to 
secure the walrus, and the rifle is preferred to the 
spear in seal-hunting. Usually there are two hunters 
who approach the walrus, one hiding behind the other, 
so that the two appear but as one. When the spear is 
thrown, both hold on to the line, which is wound 
around their arms so as to cause as much friction as 



WALRUS DIET. 183 

possible, in order to, exhaust the animal speedily. The 
spear-head is of walrus tusk, and is about three inches 
long and three-quarters of an inch thick, with an iron 
barb that is kept very sharp. The line is attached to 
the middle of the spear-head, the near end being 
slanted, so that when the line is tightened it lies cross- 
wise in the wound, like a harpoon, and it is almost im- 
possible for it to draw out after once passing through 
the tough hide of the animal. When the line is nearly 
run out, the end of the spear-shaft is passed through a 
loop in the end of the line and held firmly by digging 
a little hole in the ice for the end of the spear to rest 
in, the foot resting upon the line and against the spear 
to steady it. This gives the hunter an immense ad- 
vantage over his powerful game, and if he is fortunate 
enough to secure this hold, there is no escape for the 
walrus except that the line may cut on the edge of the 
sharp ice, or the thin ice break off, and hunter, line, and 
all be precipitated into the water — a not unusual ex- 
perience in walrus hunting. Another cause of mis- 
fortune is for the line to become entangled around the 
arm of the hunter, so that he cannot cast it off, in 
which case he is most assuredly drawn into the sea, 
and in nine cases out of ten drowned, for his knife is 
seldom at hand for an emergency, and no amount of 
experience will ever induce an Inuit to provide against 
danger. 

Sometimes the hunter is alone when he strikes a wal- 
rus, and in that case it requires considerable dexterity 
to secure the spear hold in the ice ; or if he fails to get 



184 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

that he may sit down and brace his feet against a 
small hummock, when it comes to a sheer contest of 
muscle between the hunter and the walrus. In these 
contests victory generally perches upon the banner of 
the walrus, though the Inuit will never give up until 
the last extremity is reached. Often he is dragged to 
the very edge of the ice before he finds a protuberance 
against which to brace his feet, and often he is drawn 
down under the ice before he will relinquish his hold. 
He is very tenacious under such circumstances, for he 
knows that when he loses the walrus he loses his line 
and harpoon also. 

Occasionally a dead walrus is found with a harpoon 
and line fastened to him, in which case the walrus and 
line belong to the finder. I remember a curious inci- 
dent of this kind that occurred at Depot Island. Too- 
looah and Ebierbing (Esquimau Joe) were hunting to- 
gether and Toolooah struck a fine young bull walrus, 
and got the spear hold against the ice for Joe to hold. 
It is a powerful hold, and a child could hold a whale 
in that way if the line did not break. But poor unfor- 
tunate Joe, for some unaccountable reason, raised the 
spear, and, of course, the line was drawn from under his 
foot, and both walrus and line were lost, notwithstand- 
ing Toolooah and Sebeucktolee (familiarly "Black- 
smith ") caught the running line and held until their 
hands were cut to the bone. They did not know at 
this time that another walrus had been killed a mile or 
two further along the edge of the fioe. The loss of the 
line was also a sad misfortune. Joe felt so badly about 



WALRUS DIET. 185 

it that he was ashamed to come in, and walked several 
miles farther along the ice with an Innit companion, 
in the hope of killing a seal with his rifle; bnt Too- 
looah, who had taken no rifle, inasmuch as he had 
taken a spear and line instead, returned to camp and 
came into the igloo which he and I occupied in com- 
mon, looking very much dejected in consequence of 
the loss of his walrus and line, the circumstances of 
which he explained to me, showing his terribly lacer- 
ated hands. The fact that another walrus had been 
killed was a relief to him, but did not dissipate his 
grief for the lost line, which was the last we had. 

About half-past ten o'clock that night, while we were 
eating some boiled walrus meat and entrails (about the 
fifth meal since four o'clock on the afternoon, when the 
meat arrived), some one came to the entrance of the 
igloo and handed in Toolooah's walrus line, saying Joe 
and Blucher had found the walrus dead upon the ice 
near where it was struck, the animal having crawled 
out and died after the hunters had left. Now for the 
first time Toolooah's face brightened up, and he was so 
impatient to hear the circumstances of the recovery of 
the lost game that, late as it was, he went to Joe's igloo 
to inquire. He soon returned with an exceedingly woe- 
begone expression, for which I failed to elicit an ex- 
planation until the morning, when I found out from 
Joe that, according to the laws and customs of the 
limits the walrus belonged to him because he found it. 

" What interest has Toolooah in it ? " said I. 

" None," was Joe's reply. " All over here country 



186 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

same way. Man he strikee walrus ; let lie go again ; 
somebody else hndee ; he walrus." 

" Well, Joe, suppose the somebody else lets the wal- 
rus go, how is it then ? " 

" All same way. 1 ' 

" So Toolooah has no interest in that walrus he 
killed and that you let go again ? " 

"Yes, all same way here country. But I give 'm 
back he line last night. Line my, all same ; I findee." 

" That was certainly noble in you, Joe, I am sure." 

" Oh, yes ; Toolooah my friend." 

And so, I noticed, always was the case whenever there 
was any doubt about a point; "custom here country" 
always managed to give Joe the best of it, and I came 
to the conclusion that he had become pretty thoroughly 
civilized durins; his residence in the United States. 

Sometimes an inflated seal -skin, called an ah-wah- 
tah, is attached to the end of the line, that buoys it up 
and soon exhausts the wounded walrus. This is a 
very good plan, but is not considered advantageous 
when working in loose ice unless hunting from a boat, 
for the wounded animal is apt to get beyond the reach 
of the hunter. After the ice disappears walruses are 
then killed on the small islands, to which they resort 
to sleep, and are sometimes found in great numbers. 

In the fall of 1878 I Avent with a party of Inuit 
hunters to a small rocky island opposite Daly Bay, 
where we found a herd of from seventy -five to a hun- 
dred, most of them asleep ; but some were complaining 
and grunting, and punching their bed-fellows with their 



WALRUS DIET. 187 

long tusks. Our approach was made cautiously up the 
slippery side of a wet rock until within range, when 
at the suggestion of my Inuit companions I fired at a 
fine young bull, being instructed to hit him just be- 
hind the ear. I did so, and sent a 320-grain slug from 
my Sharp's rifle through his skull. His head dropped 
to the ground and he never moved a muscle. At the 
same time another shot was fired by one of the Inuits ; 
but the hunter's foo^ slipped at the same moment, and 
the bullet whistled harmlessly over the heads of the herd. 
A grand rush was then made by all the hunters, and 
the walruses were wriggling and sliding down the slimy 
rocks into the sea. One of the Inuits darted his har- 
poon into what he took to be a sleeping walrus, but it 
proved to be the one I had already killed. I followed 
into the midst of the herd and put a bullet through 
the head of another bull before they had all left the 
rock. Had Oxeomadiddlee not struck a dead walrus we 
might have had three, for an ahwahtah was attached to 
his line, so that we could have regained it at any time 
with the boat. The walrus never appeared to me the 
dangerous animal I have known him to be represented. 
If wounded and brought to bay he will certainly turn 
upon his assailants, and many Inuits have been killed 
in these encounters, while others still bear scars re- 
ceived from the tusks of those which they were hunt- 
ing. But as long as there appears to be a chance to 
escape by flight the walrus usually will seek safety in 
that way. 

One of my companions in this hunt — Toogoolar, or 



188 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

Oxeoniadiddlee, as he is usually called — is a famous 
walrus hunter, and his success is probably largely due 
to his immense physical strength. He is a perfect Es- 
quimau Samson, and when he is on one end of a line, 
with his feet braced against a hummock, the walrus at 
the other end has no advantage. Indeed, the odds are 
in favor of Oxeomadiddlee. His singular name is self- 
imposed, and is an Inuit expression of greeting, or 
rather when one unexpectedly arrives, as the clown 
says, " Here we are again," and occurred in this way. 
Several years ago he was hunting walrus in the pack- 
ice, when the wind changed and blew the ice away 
from shore. This is a contingency to which the 
hunters are constantly liable, and is the greatest danger 
to which they are subjected in their pursuit. Many 
are thus carried away, sometimes out to sea, and are 
never heard from again ; while others have been 
drifted a long distance from their homes before the 
drift again touched the shore-ice and allowed them to 
find their way back, if possible. Sometimes they starve 
to death before the ice again lands, though occasionally 
they are quite comfortable under such circumstances, 
as, for instance, were four who were carried off just 
before we started on our trip to King William Land 
a year ago last spriDg. Equeesik and his brother 
Owanork, who were to accompany us, and Nanook and 
Blucher were thus carried off from Depot Island, with 
one of our sleds and a dead walrus which they were 
cutting up at the time. They did not get back for 
four or five days, but suffered scarcely at all while away. 



WALRUS DIET. 189 

They built an igloo on the largest cake they could 
reach, and of course had plenty to eat. They made a 
lamp of walrus hide, and burned the blubber to heat 
their house. When the ice touched the shore below 
Chesterfield Inlet they jumped on the sled and drove 
home. There is always more or less risk attending 
these adventures under all circumstances. 

The time of which I was speaking that Toogoolar 
was carried away, he was gone a long time, until, in- 
deed, his tribe had given up all hope of his returning. 
But one morning during a severe snow-storm he ar- 
rived in camp, and no one had noticed his approach 
until, crawling through the door of an igloo, he stood 
amid his friends and exclaimed, " Ox'-e-o-ma-did'-dle-e " 
(Good-morning. Here we are again). He had been car- 
ried from Repulse Bay to the vicinity of Whale Point, 
when an easterly wind drove the pack on shore and he 
escaped, but had to make his way on foot from there 
back home again. He had his walrus line and spear 
with him, and had killed a walrus while in the pack ; but 
the piece that held his food was broken off and floated 
away from him, so that he was for many days without 
anything to eat. Inuits are somewhat accustomed to 
such experiences, and can be deprived of food for a long 
time without starving. When a walrus is killed it takes 
some time to cut it up and prepare it for removal to 
camp. There are usually several helpers in the vicinity of 
any one who carries a line and spear. Others walk along 
the edge of the pack until they find some one work- 
ing up to a walrus, or a party engaged in cutting it up. 



190 SCHWAIKA'S SEARCH. 

According to Inuit custom, all who arrive while the 
walrus is beiug cut up, no matter how many, are en- 
titled to a share of it. The man who strikes it, how- 
ever, has the first pick, which, if there are four of them, 
is one of the hind quarters ; if there are only two or 
three, he has both hind flippers if he prefer them, and 
is always entitled to the head, which contains some of 
the choicest morsels either for cooking or eating raw. 
I know of nothing more palatable in that climate dur- 
ing winter and spring than raw frozen walrus head and 
tongue. It is not an inviting-looking dish, but is most 
enjoyable. The meat is hard, but not particularly 
tough — for walrus — and consists of alternate layers of 
lean and fat. It is eaten with the addition of more 
blubber, and is generally the occasion of a common 
feast for all the men in the camp. If there is any left 
the women can eat it if they want to, but the women 
never eat with the men, and if the tupic or igloo where 
the feast is being held is small, even the women that 
dwell there are banished until the feast is over. An 
ookjook, when killed, is divided up in the same way as 
a walrus, all the bystanders receiving a share. In mak- 
ing the division of the carcass the portions are kept in 
a bag made by lacing the edges of the skin that holds 
the share with a line made of a strip of the raw hide. 
In this bag are also deposited such portions of the en- 
trails, liver, etc., as fall to the share of each. In hunt- 
ing on foot the men usually take one or two dogs 
apiece to drag home their dividends. When encamped 
upon a hill, such as Depot Island, which commands a 



WALRUS DIET. 191 

view of an extensive tract of ice, the natives seldom go 
walrus hunting unless they first see one on the ice, in 
which case one of the best hunters starts immediately 
with his weapons, and the " bummers " follow later with 
a sled and dogs. The arrival of a sled-load of walrus 
meat into a hungry camp is one of the most cheerful 
sights that it ever falls to the lot of a traveller to wit- 
ness, and I have noticed that his interest is seldom di- 
minished by the fact that his own is one of the hungry 
stomachs to be fed from this plenty. The women see 
the sled coming, while still at a great distance, and then 
the big stone lamps are lit, and snow put into the ket- 
tles to melt, so that no time need be wasted after the 
meat gets there. The cooking is seldom done in each 
dwelling separately; but he who Las the largest kettle 
or the biggest heart, when his own meal is ready, goes 
to the door of his igloo or tupic and calls out, " O-yook, 
O-yook," which means warm food, and all the men and 
boys gather in, each with a knife in his hand, and with- 
out further ceremony they fall to and devour what is 
set before them. The largest part of an Inuit's food is, 
however, eaten raw. These o-yooks are merely festal 
occasions, though they occur several times a day, and 
may happen at any hour of the day or night when the 
natives are assembled in villages and have plenty of 
food on hand. It is then that they recompense them- 
selves for starvings in the past or in prospect. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 



THE KETUKN. 



We reached our permanent camp on our return from 
King William Land on September 19th. It was about 
six miles south-east of Gladman Point, and at the foot of 
a high hill, which Toolooah remarked would make a good 
look-out tower for deer-hunting. All along this part 
of the coast, where Simpson Strait is narrowest, would 
soon swarm with reindeer waiting for the salt water to 
freeze, so they could continue their navigation south- 
ward. It is for this reason that we selected it as our 
permanent camp while we also awaited the freezing of 
the strait, so that we could cross with our heavy sleds. 
When Henry and Frank went down the coast they 
found reindeer everywhere else but at Grladman Point 
and that neighborhood, and were there for three days 
without food. In the meantime Toolooah crossed the 
strait in a kyack and found the natives. On his return 
he killed a reindeer on the main-land and relieved 
their distress. Long before Ave reached the spot the 
meadows and ponds were frozen, so that we could cross 
them with perfect impunity. In many places the ice 
was so clear that it required considerable moral cour- 
age to step upon it, it looked so exactly like still water. 

192 




13 



THE RETURN. 195 

Hemy came up to see us the uext day, his camp 
being about seven miles below. The Inuits crossed to 
the King William Land side on the 17th. It was a 
picturesque sight to see the whole of Joe's and Ish- 
nark's families, with Henry and a number of dogs, upon 
a raft made by lashing together four kyacks. They 




f 




HENBY KXUTSCHAK'S CAMP. 



had to choose a still day for the crossing, and keep 
very quiet while upon the raft. Lieutenant Schwatka 
paid a visit to the other camp on the 2 2d, and the day 
following Toolooah and I moved our camp about two 
miles farther east, to a large lake, where we at once set 
to work, the ice being already eight inches thick, to 
build an ice igloo of large slabs three feet by six, which 



196 SCHWATEA'S SEARCH. 

standing on end and so placed as to support each other, 
formed the walls, which afterward were covered with 
the tent, and made a much warmer house than the tent 
alone, as it is a complete shelter against the wind. 

Reindeer were now seen daily in immense herds. The 
day we moved camp we ran upon a herd of about fifty, 
and Toolooah killed seven before they could get away, 
following them up, running and dropping on his knee 
to fire. So rapid and effective was his delivery with 
his Winchester repeating carbine, that this unequalled 
achievement was accomplished in less than ten min- 
utes; and, well knowing that it was to his splendid 
weapon that the credit largely belonged, this undemon- 
strative savage held up his rifle and kissed it while he 
was talking to me about the affair. On the 30th Too- 
looah killed twelve reindeer, Joe eight, and Equeesik 
and I each three, making a grand total of twenty-six 
by our party alone in one day. 

We ate quantities of reindeer tallow with our meat, 
probably about half our daily food. Breakfast is eaten 
raw and frozen, but we generally have a warm meal in 
the evening. Fuel is hard to obtain, and consists en- 
tirely of a vine-like moss called ik-shoot-ik. Reindeer 
tallow is also used for a light. A small flat stone 
serves for a candlestick, on which a lump of tallow 
is placed, close to a piece of fibrous moss called mun-ne, 
which is used for a wick. The tallow melting runs 
down upon the stone and is immediately absorbed by 
the moss. This makes a very cheerful and pleasant 
light, but is most exasperating to a hungry man, as it 



THE RETURN. 197 

smells exactly like frying meat. Eating such quan- 
tities of tallow is a great benefit in this climate, and 
we can easily see the effect of it in the comfort with 
which we meet the cold. The mean temperature for 
the month of September was 22.1 degrees Fahr., and 
the lowest 5 degrees, and yet though we wore only our 
woollen clothes, except a fur koo-li-tar, or overcoat, 
when away from home, the cold is not annoying. Dur- 
ing October the mean temperature was —0 degree, and 
the lowest — 38 degrees. 

On the afternoon of the 27th of September a heavy 
suow-storm set in, and the next morning the snow was 
knee -deep on the level ice. The storm continued until 
during the night of the 29th. The snow was very 
deep, but the winter winds soon blew it around and 
packed it down so as to be almost solid. By the 14th 
of October the sledging was sufficiently good for Too- 
looah to go to Cape Herschel and Terror Bay for the 
sled and other articles that were left there during the 
summer for the want of transportation. As his little 
boy would suffer with the cold, Toolooah exchanged 
wives with Joe for the trip, a very usual and conven- 
ient custom among the Esquimaux. 

The ice was sufficiently strong for the reindeer to 
commence crossing to the main-land about the 1st of 
October, and in a few days their numbers had very per- 
ceptibly diminished. After the 14th we saw none at 
all; they seemed to have entirely disappeared. The 
Inuits had been very busy making up fur clothing 
for the winter trip, and we had fixed upon the 1st 



198 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

of November as the day for starting, by which time 
everything would be ready. Toolooah got back on the 
23d. He killed three bears the day he reached Terror 
Bay. All of them got into the water, and he had to 
go to the edge of the new ice, using a pole to stand 
upon while fishing them out. He killed one reindeer 
at Cape Herschel, which was all he saw while away. 

Joe came up and built an igloo adjoining ours on the 
3d of October. He wanted to get away from the vi- 
cinity of Ogzeuckjeuwock, the Netchillik Arn-ket-ko, or 
medicine-man, of whom he was apparently very much 
afraid. He alleged that the medicine-man was con- 
stantly advising his people to kill some of our party. 
Joe said that he had sak-ki-yon to that effect — that is, 
during one of his inspirations exhorted them to that 
end. There is no doubt but they would be very glad 
to kill us all, and get our guns and knives, but they 
were thoroughly afraid to undertake it. After Too- 
looah's return he and Joe gathered in the meat we had 
cached in the vicinity, preparatory to starting on the 
1st of the next month. 

Lieutenant Schwatka decided that he and I would 
take Toolooah's sled, with Joe to assist, and go by the 
way of Smith and Grant Points, and through the big in- 
let spoken of by the natives as putting in from Wilmot 
Bay, and meet the other sleds which, in charge of 
Henry, would go by the way of Richardson Point and 
Back's River, meeting at the bend of the river above 
the Dangerous Rapids, where we would find the 
Ooqueesiksillik natives and take on board a supply of 



THE RETURN. 199 

fish to last us until we reached the reindeer country 
once more. As the other sleds had the shorter route, 
they would start a day or two later and wait for us at 
the appointed rendezvous, unless they were getting 
short of food, in which case they would push on into 
the reindeer country. Naiieyow, the Ooqueesiksillik 
guide, would accompany them. We started on the 1st, 
as proposed, but did not succeed in getting farther than 
the shore of the strait, about three miles from camp, 
owing to the heavy sleds and the dogs being so fat that 
they were lazy. We took Ishnark's sled to help us for 
the first day, as we had such a quantity of meat — one 
sled loaded entirely with it and the other with about 
half a load. We had to keep the extra sled the follow- 
ing day also, as we wanted to get well over the salt- 
water ice. 

We had fondly hoped to be at the Dangerous Rapids 
by the 10th or 15th of November, but we only reached 
the native camp near the mouth of Kigmuktoo (Sher- 
man Inlet) on the 12th, owing to our heavily loaded 
sled and the much bad weather, fogs, and wind that 
would blow the snow around so that we could not see 
our course. There was quite a large camp of Netch- 
illik and Ookwolik Esquimaux on a big lake near the 
mouth of Sherman Inlet, the largest camp we had yet 
seen. The sled was pulling heavily and slowly across 
the lake, and I went ahead toward the igloos. All the 
men were standing outside awaiting our arrival, and 
among them were some Netchilliks we had met during 
the spring. As soon as they recognized me they set 



200 SCRWATKA'S SEARCH. 

up a great shout of " Many-tu-me ! " wliich is their 
salutatiou of welcome, and means smooth. They 
seemed very glad that we were coming among them 
again, and hurried me into a big, warm igloo, while 
most of the men ran out and helped the sled in. They 
built our igloo in short order, and during the time we 
were with them did everything in their power to con- 
tribute to our comfort. It seemed as if some one was 
on the roof of our igloo all the time patching up holes, 
and they changed the direction of the doorway every 
time the wind changed, and that kept them busy 
nearly all the time. 

We found but few interesting relics among them. 
Only a piece of the boat found in Wilmot Bay after 
the big ship sunk, and part of the block branded either 
"10"or"O E," with part of the K obliterated. If 
the ship's blocks were branded with the name of the 
vessel to which they were attached, this would be im- 
portant as establishing the identity of the ship that 
drifted down as the Terror. As an instance of the 
perversity of fate, I mention that we found among 
them a piece of wax candle that they had preserved all 
these years, while every scrap of paper had perished- 
We saw here a Netchillik, named Issebluet, who with his 
family had nearly starved to death during the summer. 
He was separated from the rest of his tribe, as it is 
customary for them to scatter during the summer, and 
though not lacking in skill or energy, had simply been 
unfortunate and unable to procure food. He was still 
very thin and weak when we saw him, and when he went 



THE RETURN. 201 

abroad had to take a couple of dogs, whose traces, tied 
around his waist, helped hirn along. Joe was very 
much frightened all the time we were here, for Netch- 
illik Toolooah was here also — the man who it was said 
wanted to kill some of our party — and Joe said they 
intended to kill all our party except the women, and 
obtain possession of the baggage and the two women. 
He said their apparent kindness was only a blind, and 
the day we left them he made me prance around with 
my pistol in my belt while the sled was being loaded. 
Toolooah, though not so nervous as Joe, had his rifle 
handy and kept his eye upon it closely. I noticed 
that the men all stood around, but never offered to as- 
sist in loading the sled. Toolooah said they could not 
very well without exposing a fact that he had noticed 
— that they all had their knives in their sleeves. But 
if they had, they took good care not to use them. Two 
of them accompanied us a part of the way to show us 
the easiest route over the heavy hill we had to cross 
before reaching the salt-water ice, and kindly put their 
shoulders to the load whenever the sled pulled hard. 
I saw nothing in the conduct of any of them to com- 
plain of, but everything to praise. I noticed that most 
of the men in this camp had their hah* cut close to 
their heads, the style that at home is profanely called 
"a Reilly cut." This I ascertained was not for per- 
sonal adornment, but for convenience in hunting, where 
fine-tooth combs are unknown, but could be put to 
good use. 

We met a sled with a few natives coming from Kig- 



202 SCHWA TEA' 8 SEARCH. 

» 

inuktoo to join the rest of the tribe on the lake, and 
with them was an aged crone named Toolooah, who 
had seen white men in Boothia Isthmus, when a young 
woman, and had also been with the party who found 
the boat and skeletons in Starvation Cove, near Kich- 
arclson Point. She confirmed the testimony previously 
obtained in every essential particular. We gave her a 
few needles and a spoon, for which she was very grate- 
ful, especially to her namesake, our Toolooah, to whom 
she gave her walking-stick and two locks of her hair, 
which he severed with a snow-knife as she knelt be- 
side the sled. This was a charm to protect him from 
evil until he got home. Besides this old woman there 
were three other women on the sled. One I noticed 
particularly, because she looked so much like the God- 
dess of Liberty. Her hood was over her head and hung 
with the same jaunty air as a liberty cap, and her 
artiger, cut loose in the throat, looked not unlike the 
classic toga. Though not quite so large as the statue 
on the dome of the Capitol at Washington, she was im- 
mense, and had arms like a gymnast. Modesty, either 
natural or assumed, and fear of the strange white men 
made her keep on the opposite side of the sled from 
us, though, as Lieutenant Schwatka remarked, she 
could have handled both of us if she wanted to. 

We marched in a south-east direction in the inlet five 
days, during which we travelled upon it about forty, 
five miles, and when we left it could still see it run- 
ning in a southerly direction for about ten or fifteen 
miles farther. It is bottle-shaped, not more than a 



THE RETURN. 203 

mile wide at its moutli, and for a considerable distance, 
when it gradually widens out to five or six miles, and 
is about twenty miles wide at its head. Nearly every 
night we were able to find water in some lake on the 
land, but had to carry it from two to four miles into 
camp. This duty Lieutenant Schwatka and I took 
upon ourselves, while the Inuits were building and pre- 
paring the igloo. 

The sun was so low now that we had either sunrise 
or sunset during the whole time it was above the 
horizon. At noon it was not more than four degrees 
high. We were gradually moving southward, or we 
would have been left with nothing but this light 
during the daytime. In fact, several days before we 
left Back's River, the sun only showed his diameter 
above the hills along the shore, where it lazily rolled 
for a few minutes and left us the long twilight in 
which to build our igloos, which were scarely ever fin- 
ished before the utter darkness came upon us. Short 
days, together with our heavy sleds, and dogs not more 
than half fed, kept us back most provokingly. The 
snow on the land was soft, not having got thoroughly 
packed as yet, while the intense cold covered its sur- 
face with minute particles of ice that impeded the sled 
like so much sand. In many places the river and lakes 
were entirely denuded of snow, and the bare ice would 
take the ice from our runners as if we were moving 
over rocks. As long as the river ice was bare this 
made no difference ; the sled would slip along merrily, 
the dogs on a run, but this seldom lasted for more 



204 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

than half a mile, when we would again run upon snow 
and have all the more laborious drag as a consequence. 
Our usual marches at this time were from five to ten 
miles, instead of from ten to twenty, as on our way 
north. 

The most unpleasant feature of winter travelling is 
the waiting for an igloo to be built. To those at work 
even this time can be made to pass pleasantly, and 
there is plenty that even the white men of a party can 
do that would keep them busy, and consequently com- 
fortable. When travelling overland the halt is made, 
if possible, on some lake where a water hole may be 
dug. This, through average ice — that is, about six or 
seven feet — will take about an hour and a half, though 
an expert native will do it in perhaps half that time. 
It is a blessing to get water at this time, and a great 
shout goes up from the well-digger, as the delicious 
fluid comes bubbling up through the narrow well, that 
is echoed by the igloo builders and spreads throughout 
the camp. Then the women repair with tin dippers 
and cups cut from musk-ox horn, and after refreshing 
themselves carry a drink to their husbands. One can 
drink enormously at this time, especially after working ; 
but it will be well to keep up pretty violent exercise 
for some time afterward, as filling the stomach with such 
a quantity of ice-cold water will soon produce a shiver. 

Another task that the white men can interest them- 
selves in is the unloading of the sled and beating the 
snow and ice out of the fur bed -clothing. The Esqui- 
maux do not use sleeping bags for themselves, but in- 



THE RETURN. 205 

stead have a blanket which they spread over them, 
while under them are several skins, not only to keep 
the body away from the snow,, but also to prevent 
the body from thawing the snow couch and thus mak- 
ing a hole that would soon wet the skins. While on 
the march the skins for the bed are usually spread 
over the top of the loaded sledge, and then the whole 
is securely lashed down with seal-skin thongs. It is the 
invariable custom to turn the fur-side of the skins up, 
because it is easy enough to beat the snow from the 
hair, while it might thaw and make the skin-side wet. 
You often, therefore, find that water has fallen upon the 
skin that makes your bed, and formed a great patch of 
ice, which has to be beaten off with a wooden club. 

Until experience has taught you it makes you shud- 
der to think that soon your naked body is to rest upon 
the place where now you see that patch of ice. But 
continued pounding will remove every vestige of it 
without disturbing the fur, if the weather is sufficiently 
cold. Therefore exposure is the best treatment for bed- 
ding, though it certainly gives the skins a degree of 
cold that can scarcely be appreciated until experienced. 
It is astonishing, however, how soon the bed becomes 
warm from the heat of the body. For, perhaps, from 
five to ten minutes you may lie there and shiver, when 
gradually a genial warmth begins to pervade the whole 
body, the shiver subsides, and you are as comfortable, 
as far as cold is concerned, in bed in an igloo in the 
Arctic, as you would be in a civilized mansion in the 
temperate zone. ' 



206 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

The Esquimaux are uot acquainted with the qualities 
of the magnetic needle, and, it is needless to say, do not 
travel by the compass. Like all savage tribes they 
have, however, methods for keeping their direction 
while making long voyages. These are usually made on 
the salt-water ice, and they follow the land ; but when 
travelling over land, either in summer or winter, they 
can generally distinguish north from south, at least ap- 
proximately. In summer the running vines point to the 
salt water, they say, which, in going around Hudson's 
Bay, would indicate the south. And then there are cer- 
tain species of moss that are only found in the vicinity 
of salt water. In winter they notice the ridges of 
sdow along the ice, or the land spots on the highlands, 
and can keep their course by them with surprising ac- 
curacy. 

The Esquimaux, however, are not a people given to 
exploration. They are not curious concerning unknown 
territory. What they are chiefly interested in is, " what 
they shall eat and drink, and wherewithal they shall be 
clothed." Certain districts within their knowledge 
furnish the different kinds of game, and these they visit 
at the accustomed seasons. Occasionally they will visit 
neighboring tribes, and sometimes settle down in the 
new country, depending upon their skill in the chase 
for the support of their families. But this country, 
new to them, is well known to those whom they visit, 
and they have the benefit of competent guides until 
such time as they are sufficiently acquainted with the 
country themselves. Though they are constantly mov- 



THE RETURN. 207 

ing in summer and winter, their journeys are seldom ex- 
tended. They will sometimes go from the mouth of 
Chesterfield Inlet to the Wager River or Repulse Bay, 
and occasionally to the tribes at the north part of Mel- 
ville Peninsula, but generally spend one year at least 
at some intermediate point. The tribes they pass 
through on these journeys are so connected by marriage 
as to be almost like one large tribe, so that they are all 
the time in the land of their friends. 

Twice since leaving the Inuit camp in Wilmot Bay 
the dogs had an interval of eight days between meals, 
and were in no condition for hard work. That they 
could live and do any work at all seemed marvellous. 
I am constrained to believe that the Esquimau dog will 
do more work, and with less food, than any other 
draught animal existing. On the night of the 20th 
Lieutenant Schwatka observed a meridian culmination 
of the moou, which showed in latitude 67 deg. 32 min. 
42 sec. north, only three miles from our reckoning. It 
is a difficult task to make astronomical observations 
with a sextant in a temperature thirty-eight degrees be- 
low zero, or seventy below the freezing-point, as it was 
this night. It is not pleasant to sit still for any length 
of time in such weather. A thin skim of ice over the 
surface of the kerosene oil used for an artificial horizon 
has to be constantly removed by the warm breath of an 
assistant. The sextant glasses become obscure from the 
freezing upon them of the breath of the observer, and 
can only be cleaned with the warm fingers, which they 
blister in return for such kindness. These are some of 



208 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

the obstacles to determining one's position astronomi- 
cally in an Arctic winter ; while in summer, there being 
no night, one is dependent upon the sun alone. The 
mean temperature for November was — 23.3 degrees 
and the lowest noted —49 degrees. 

We ran upon a narrow strip of salt water, appar- 
ently an inlet from Cockburn Bay, on the 28th. "We 
had to halt the next day for Toolooah to rest, as he 
was completely prostrated with the hard work of the 
last four days. We moved, however, on the 30th, Joe 
driving and Toolooah strolling along at his ease. We 
emerged upon Cockburn Bay soon after starting, and 
crossed to the southern shore by noontime, a distance of 
about nine miles, our rapid moving being entirely owing 
to the superiority of the sledging on salt-water ice. 

We crossed the narrow neck of land between Cock- 
burn Bay and the fresh-water portion of the river be- 
tween the two great bends in three days' travel, and 
emerged about eight miles above the Dangerous Rapid s 
on the 5th of December, where we had hoped to be by 
the 15th of November. Our igloos were made on the 
southern bank, and we were greatly surprised that we 
saw no sled tracks in crossing the river. We had sup- 
posed that they, with the shorter route and smooth 
salt-water ice nearly all the way, would have been 
ahead of us, and either waiting or forced to move into 
the reindeer country for food. Our first object, there- 
fore, was to find the natives, who live here all the 
year round, as Narleyow, one of the tribe, who was 
with Henry, constantly assured us was the case. From 



THE RETURN. 209 

these people we expected to get information concerning 
the other sleds, and also to get a large quantity of iish 
for food for man and beast. We found some fish 
caches near our camp, and some sled tracks and foot- 
prints about one mile and a half farther down the 
river, which Joe said led a long distance. The day 
after our arrival we appropriated one large cache to 
feed our starving dogs, and then started the next day 
for their camp to pay for the fish and buy more. But 
shortly after all the men started, one of the women ran 
out and called us back, saying that Inuits were coming 
to the igloo. We hastened back and found three young 
men of the Ooqueesiksillik tribe, who had found their 
cache robbed and traced the tracks to our igloo. Joe 
explained the case to them, and said we had knives to 
pay for the fish and to buy more, which they said 
would be gladly accepted, and they would tell their 
people to bring us more fish that night. We were as- 
tonished when they said they had neither seen nor 
heard of any others of our party. 

That night, after the igloo was closed and we were 
eating our evening meal, we heard a sled drive up to 
the door and supposed our fish had arrived ; but what 
was our joy when we recognized Koumania's voice 
driving the dogs, and then heard Henry at the door of 
our igloo. We then learned that they had reached 
the Dangerous Rapids only that afternoon, and while 
building the igloos the three young men we had seen 
in the morning returned and reported having seen us 
up the river. As soon as Henry heard this he had the 
14 



210 SCHWA TEA'S SEARCH. 

load dumped from one of the sleds, and took Koumania 
to drive and an Ooqueesiksillik native as guide, and 
came at once to report. He said it had been very dif- 
ficult to get his party of natives away from the camps 
that they met daily, and that they had moved by por- 
tages, which doubled the distance. He had bought dog- 
food of the natives all along the route, and his dogs 
were, consequently, in good order. They would remain 
in camp where they were a day or two to feed up the 
dogs and get what fish they wanted for his two sleds, 
and then join us on the 10th. 

About five miles inland from Starvation Cove the na- 
tives had found during the summer the skeleton of a 
white man, which no one had ever seen before. On 
the way down, Henry visited the place and erected a 
monument over the remains. The pieces of clothing 
found indicated that deceased was a sailor, not an offi- 
cer. The finding of this grave is worthy of notice, as 
showing that the natives were thoroughly aroused by 
our visit and its object. We had promised them lib- 
eral rewards for everything of importance found, and 
for valuable information — that is, anything new — and 
were always particular to keep our promises. The con- 
sequence was that they had greatly aided us by search- 
ing everywhere within reach of their camps or hunting- 
grounds. In approaching the Dangerous Rapids from 
Cockburn Bay, Henry had found an island where on 
the Admiralty chart is marked a point of the main- 
land. In fact, there is a delta at the mouth of the 
river. Narleyow led them to a place in the branch of 



THE RETURN. 



211 



the river flowing to the westward of this island, where 
he said a rocky riclge froze to the bottom, making a 
pocket which held fish. They dug four holes within 
an area of ten feet, and in one day caught fifty-seven of 
the immense salmon for which this river is famous. He 
cooked one for us, which was the largest I ever saw. 
Joe measured the cross-section of one he saw in the na- 




vmw on back's river. 



tive igloos below our camp that measured over one foot. 
I asked him how much over, but he couldn't tell, he 
said, as his pocket measure was " only a foot long." 

The largest number of fish caught here are what the 
natives call " cow-e-sil-lik," and are peculiar to these 
waters, They are something like very large herring, 
and the flesh much coarser than salmon or trout. All 
the fish here are quite fat, the salmon especially. We 



212 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

bought several bags of salmon oil from the natives, 
which we used, so long as it lasted, as a substitute for 
reindeer tallow, which is all gone now. The weather 
is intensely cold — 62 degrees Fahrenheit on the 10th, 
the day the remainder of our party rejoined us at this 
camp. There was scarcely any wind, and it did not 
seem so cold as at — 10 degrees or — 20 degrees, with 
the wind blowing in one's face, as it was the last few 
days of our travelling, with the thermometer at — 46 
degrees and — 48 degrees. Yet we were so well fortified 
against the cold by the quantities of fat we had eaten 
that we did not mind it. The prospect was that now 
we were out of fat we would suffer a great deal with 
the intense cold that we might expect in going across 
land from Back's River to Hudson's Bay. 

The rapids on Back's River are all marked by open 
water, and are recognizable at a long distance by the 
column of black smoke arising from them like steam 
from a boiling caldron. The ice in the vicinity is dan- 
gerous to travel upon, there often being thin places, 
where the moving water has nearly, but not quite, cut 
through, and not distinguishable from the surrounding 
ice, which may be four or five feet thick. The natives 
test it, before going upon it, with a knife or stick, and 
know from the sound whether or not it is safe to travel 
upon. In some of the many open water places that we 
found in our journey up the river we could walk 
boldly up to the very edge and lie down and quench 
our thirst from the rushing torrent, while in other 
places it was not safe to go within several hundred 



IBS 






fijp3~ •■•.-■ H gf ' 1,1 . „-~ ■ '■.:'. ijjjEiSFS'liji 







I. U- .! < ■ J| 



THE RETURN. 215 

yards of the open water. On the 20th we passed open 
rapids about half a mile long, where we had to take 
the land. From the top of the hill it was a grand 
spectacle to look down upon the seething torrent and 
see the great cakes of ice broken off above and crushed 
to atoms as they passed through and under the ice 
below. 

We had hoped to have Narleyow go with us to 
Depot Island, as ho had previously been up Back's 
River and knew a route overland by which in three 
days we could reach a river where some Kinnepatoos 
were encamped all the year round. Here we could 
refit with meat and clothing and follow the river, which 
flows into Chesterfield Inlet, and then keep upon the 
salt-water ice to Depot Island. But with true limit 
perverseness he decided at the last minute not to go. 
He, however, gave Toolooah minute directions for find- 
ing the place where to leave Back's River, which is 
nearly as far west as Lake McDougal, and the route 
overland, where we would find sledge tracks and foot- 
prints to guide us to the camp. 

We found the travelling on Back's River much more 
tedious than we had anticipated, owing to the bare ice 
in the vicinity of the open-water rapids and the intense 
cold which kept the air filled with minute particles of 
ice from the freezing of the steam of the open water. 
These little particles of ice would fall upon the hard 
snow, which otherwise would have been good sledging, 
and remain separated from each other so that you could 
brush them up like sand, and were, in fact, nearly as 



216 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

hard as sand, so that it was almost impossible to drag 
the sledges along. The thermometer would frequently 
register - 50 degrees and - 60 degrees when we were 
moving with a strong wind blowing directly in our 
faces. Such travelling as this is simply terrible, aud it 
is astonishing that we were able to do it without en- 
countering any severe frost-bites. Indeed, we travelled 
one day with the thermometer — 69 degrees, and, a 
gale blowing at this time, both white men and Inuits 
were more or less frost-bitten, but merely the. little 
nippings of nose, cheeks) and wrists that one soon 
gets accustomed to in this country. As Lieutenant 
Schwatka says, it is like almost all other dangers that 
you hear and read about, they seem to dwindle when 
you meet them boldly face to face. A battle always 
seems more terrible to those in the rear than to those 
in the front lines. 

It was a noticeable fact that our course up the river 
was considerably east of south, instead of west, as map- 
ped upon the Admiralty chart. There could be no mis- 
take in regard to this when we could daily see the sun 
rise and set on the right of our general line of travel. 
It was near the end of December before we reached the 
vicinity of Mount Meadowbank, though we had hoped 
to be far beyond it by that time. Storms had kept us 
in camp several days during the journey up the river, 
and our provisions were nearly all exhausted, so that 
we had to lie over to hunt for game. The hunters 
could find nothing near the river, and were obliged to 
go with a sled one day's march to the east, build an 



THE RETURN. 217 

igloo, and hunt from there. It was terribly cold for 
them, sleeping in an igloo, without fire or blankets, 
merely a shelter from the wind, and forced, as they 
were, to sleep in their clothes. I have had such ex- 
perience and know what it is. In such cases one suf- 
fers more from cold feet than anything else. They 
would be intensely cold with dry stockings, but one's 
stockings are always wet from perspiration after walk- 
ing, and when compelled to wear them at night cause 
great suffering. 

Equeesik killed four reindeer, and we had to wait 
for them to be brought in. At this time this was all 
the food we had, and before more was obtained we 
were upon short rations. The dogs were beginning to 
feel the effect of hard work, cold weather, and low diet, 
and already we had lost two fine young dogs that died 
in consequence of privation. Before we had reached 
Depot Island we lost twenty-seven dogs, all but four 
of which died from the hardships incident to the jour- 
ney. All hands were in harness whenever we marched, 
and the work was too hard to admit of feeling the cold 
as the greatest discomfort we had to encounter. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



FAMINE. 



The last day we travelled on the river, December 28th, 
the thermometer had registered during the day — 69 
degrees in the morning, — 64 degrees at noon, and — 68 
degrees at live o'clock in the evening ; the lowest, 101 
degrees below the freezing-point. Toolooah, Joe, and 
Ishnark went hunting the next clay, but were unfor- 
tunate in not being able to secure any game, though 
they saw a small herd of reindeer. Toolooah reported 
the land sledging in good condition toward the south- 
east, much better than upon the river, and said there 
appeared to be plenty of game a day's march from the 
river in that direction. Lieutenant Sckwatka, there- 
fore, decided to abandon the river at once and strike 
directly for Depot Island, which had the advantage of 
being a straighter route than the one by the unsur- 
veyed river proposed by Narleyow. With a guide 
that would have been feasible ; but it would be run- 
ning much risk to attempt to find our way by the 
longer route in a country whose game we knew noth- 
ing of, Avith a large party dependent upon the very 
difficult hunting for support. 

It is a difficult matter to keep guns in working order 

218 



FAMINE. 219 

in the intensely cold weather we were experiencing. 
At sixty and seventy degrees below zero everything 
freezes. Even the iron and wood are affected. Strong 
oak and hickory will break almost like icicles, and when 
guns were brought into the warmer temperature of an 
igloo to clean, they would gather moisture, which had 
to be removed from every portion of the lock and 
working parts before again meeting the cold, or they 
would be worthless as weapons. They must also be 
kept free from oil or any kind of grease, as all lubri- 
cants of that sort will harden and prevent the working 
of the lock. It is but fair to state in this connection 
that our fire-arms, in which all the best American man- 
ufacturers were represented, worked admirably under 
these trying circumstances, and I feel justified in say- 
ing that it was their superiority in rapid and accurate 
delivery, in the hands of good hunters, that carried us 
through this ordeal. It is a matter of great difficulty 
to get near enough to such wary game as the reindeer, 
in winter, when the sound of the hunter's footsteps, 
though the soles of his shoes are covered with fur, is 
carried on the wind and can be distinctly heard more 
than a mile away. I have frequently heard the crunch- 
ing of the sled runners on the brittle snow — a ringing 
sound like striking bars of steel — a distance of over two 
miles. It was one advantage in travelling against a 
head wind, to counterbalance the discomfort, that it 
carried the sound of the sleds away from game we 
might be approaching. After the first day's march 
from Back's River we were never compelled to lie in 



220 SCHWATXA'S SEARCH. 

camp for the purposes of hunting game, for when we 
did come upon a herd the breech-loaders and magazine- 
guns did their work so effectively that we could lay in 
a stock of meat for a day or two ahead. 

We left Back's River behind on the last day of the 
year, and made about seven miles in a south-east direc- 
tion, and encamped and stopped to hunt, the last halt 
we made for that purpose. The mean temperature for 
December was — 50.4 degrees Fahrenheit, the lowest 
— 69 degrees, and the highest — 26 degrees. January 
3d the thermometer reached the lowest point that we 
saw during our sojourn in this climate — in the morn- 
ing — 70 degrees, at noon — 69 degrees, and at five 
o'clock in the afternoon the extraordinary mark of — 71 
degrees. Equeesik moved his igloo about ten miles 
ahead this day, but the other two igloos were com- 
pelled to wait for their hunters to come in. The day, 
notwithstanding the intensity of the cold, was very 
pleasant. There was scarcely a breath of wind, and 
our igloo door was open the entire day. In fact, it 
was a far pleasanter day to be out of doors than with 
50 degrees warmer and the wind blowing. January 
proved a very stormy month ; indeed, there were but 
eleven days in which we could travel, and we only 
accomplished ninety-one miles toward our destination 
during that time. One day, the 19th, we lay over to 
follow up some musk-ox tracks we had seen the day 
previous. The weather was fine, notwithstanding a 
pretty strong wind and a temperature of — 65 degrees. 

We followed the tracks about twenty-five miles, and 





THE MARCH IN EXTREME COLD WEATHER. 



FAMINE. 223 

only desisted when we found that wolves were ahead of 
us and had already frightened the game away. The 
country is filled with reindeer, and on every hill-side 
their breath can be seen rising like clouds of steam. A 
herd that was frightened by the dogs, which were fol- 
lowing the musk-ox tracks, scampered off in every di- 
rection, and it looked as if a lot of locomotives had 
been let loose over the country, the smoke coming from 
their lungs in great puffs as they ran, and streaming 
along behind them. When the sledges are moving 
during a clear cold day, the position of any one of them 
is known to the team, though they may be widely sep- 
arated. Sometimes, for the advantage of hunting to be 
obtained thereby, our igloos have beeu separated by a 
day's march of about ten miles, and at that distance 
the condensed breath of the dogs and people could be 
distinctly seen and the position of the igloos located. 

January proved the coldest month of our experience, 
with a mean thermometer of — 53.2 degrees, lowest 
— 71 degrees, and the highest — 23 degrees Fahrenheit. 
We experienced one storm of thirteen days' duration 
during the latter part of January and early part of 
Februaiy, and found but thirteen days during which 
we could travel in the latter month. 

It was almost our daily experience now to lose one 
or more dogs. They got plenty of reindeer meat, but it 
was usually fed frozen, and has but little nourishment in 
it in that state for cold weather, when fat and warming 
food is required. A seal-skinful of blubber each week 
would have saved many of our dogs ; but we had none 



224 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

to spare for them, as we were reduced to the point 
when we had to save it exclusively for lighting the ig- 
loos at night. We could not use it to warm our igloos 
or to cook with. Our meat had to be eaten cold — that 
is, frozen so solid that it had to be sawed, and then 
broken into convenient-sized lumps, which when first 
put into the mouth were like stones — or cooked with 
moss gathered from the hill-sides and the snow beaten 
off with a stick. Meat will freeze in a temperature a lit- 
tle below the freezing-point, but it is then in a very dif- 
ferent condition from the freezing it gets at from sixty 
to seventy degrees below zero. Then every piece of meat 
you put in your mouth has first to be breathed upon 
to thaw the surface, or it will stick to your tongue and 
sides of your mouth and lips like frosty iron, and with 
the same disagreeable results. The luxury of a cooked 
meal could only be indulged in on the days when we 
were lying over in camp, as to gather the moss and cook 
the meal would take from three to four hours. 

The country began to swarm with wolves now, as 
well as with reindeer, and we would meet them daily. 
Often they would come close to the igloos, and one 
night Toolooah shot one of three that were eating the 
meat he had thrown out for food for our dogs. 

They killed and ate four of Equeesik's dogs, and at- 
tacked him when he went out of the igloo to drive 
them off. He killed two of his assailants with his rifle, 
and two others by the most infernal traps ever devised. 
He set two keenly sharpened knife-blades in the ice 
and covered them with blood, which the wolves licked, 



FAMINE. 225 

at the same time slicing their tongues, the cold keeping 
them from feeling the wounds at the time, and their 
own warm blood tempting them to continue until their 
tongues were so scarified that death was inevitable. 
He also prepared some pills by rolling up long strips 
of whalebone, bound with sinew and hidden in meat, 
which freezing would hold together until it had passed 
into the animal's intestines, when the meat having 
thawed, and the sinew digested, the whalebone would 
open out and produce an agonizing death. If anything 
were bad enough treatment for wolves, these devices of 
Equeesik's might be so classed. 

Toolooah was out hunting on the 23d of February, 
when a pack of about twenty wolves attacked him. 
He jumped upon a big rock, which was soon sur- 
rounded, and there he fought the savage beasts oif with 
the butt of his gun until he got a sure shot, when he 
killed one, and while the others fought over and de- 
voured the carcass, he made the best of the opportunity 
to get back into camp. It was a most fortunate escape, 
as he fully realized. 

On the 25th we were detained in camp by a storm, 
which Toolooah took advantage of for hunting. He 
saw a reindeer not far from camp, and was soon aston- 
ished to see another Inuit following the same animal. 
The stranger, when he saw Toolooah, ran back to his 
igloo ; but Toolooah let the reindeer go and followed 
the man, whom he found to be a Kinnepatoo acquaint- 
ance named Tsedluk. From him he learned that De- 
pot Island was only two igloos, or three days off, with 
15 



226 SCH WA TEA'S SEA R OH. 

long marches and liglit sledges. We moved up to 
Tsedluk's igloo the following day, and bought some 
meat from him, as game was scarce beyond. Here we 
cached all our heavy stuff, and with light sleds and 
forced marches reached Depot Island on the 4th day 
of March, by way of Connery River, which we came 
upon on the 2d. The mean temperature for the past 
month had been — 44.8 degrees, and the coldest re- 
corded — 69 degrees Fahrenheit. 

We found open water at the rapids where Connery 
River empties into its estuary, and the ice four feet 
above water-line. It was with considerable difficulty 
that a safe passage was found for the sledges, but once 
on the salt-water ice we moved along rapidly. The 
prospect of reaching home the next day was very ex- 
hilarating, and the dogs seemed to catch the infection 
from their masters. The poor, jaded beasts coiled 
their tails over their backs and ran along barking until 
we halted for the night, within about twenty miles of 
our destination. We still knew nothing concerning 
Hudson's Bay since we left a year before, Tsedluk 
having seen no one since he came to the camp where 
we found him. The great question with us was, 
" Were any ships in the bay ? " If there were, the 
prospect was that there would be some news from 
home and letters from our friends. We hoped that 
there were ships, and believed that they would be 
wintering at Depot Island, as it was the unanimous 
opinion of the officers of the fleet at Marble Island the 
previous year that Depot Island was a far preferable 



FAMINE. 229 

place to winter at, on account of the difficulty of getting 
fresh meat for the crews at the other harbor. 

At any rate, we felt sure of finding our hard bread, 
pork, and molasses, together with some other provisions 
that Captain Barry said he could spare and leave with 
Armow, the native who had charge of our stuff at 
Depot Island, and the prospect of again eating some 
civilized food was most cheering. The natives exhib- 
ited an unwonted degree of activity, and we got under 
way at seven o'clock the next morning, moving off at 
the rate of three miles and a half an hour. We soon 
arrived in sight of Depot Island, and looked anxiously 
for sledge tracks, which we felt sure would be abun- 
dant here if the ships were near by. We saw no 
tracks for so long a time that we soon began to doubt 
that there were even any natives there. 

About noon we were within four or five miles of the 
island, and saw some natives on the ice in the dim dis- 
tance. Then all was excitement in our party, and it 
increased as the distance diminished. I never expected 
to feel so agitated as I did when I found myself 
running and shouting with the natives. Toolooah fired 
a signal-gun, then jumped on the sled and waved a 
deer-skin, which had been agreed between him and 
Armow as announcing our identity on our return. 

At last the sleds drew near enough to recognize 
Armow, who was hastening up to us ahead of the 
others. When they halted he grasped Lieutenant 
Schwatka by the hand and shook it long and heartily, 
saying, " Ma-muk-poo am-a-suet sufc-o" ("Plenty good 



230 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

to see "), and then lie came to me, and I noticed, as he 
held my hand, the tears, warm from his dear old heart, 
were coursing down his cheeks. I was moved, as I 
scarcely anticipated, at the tenderness and earnest 
warmth of our reception. There were Eeglee-leock, 
Nanook, Seb-euck-to-lee, Shok-pe-nark, Con-we-ckiergk 
(Toolooah's brother), Koo-pah, Eve-loo, and a host of 
boys, while Petulark, Ter-re-ah-ne-ak, and others came 
in later from the direction of Camp Daly. 

From Armow we learned that there was only one 
ship in the bay, and that it was at Marble Island ; and 
furthermore, that there were no provisions for us at De- 
pot Island. This seemed utterly incomprehensible to 
us, as Captain Barry had about a thousand pounds of 
hard bread on board the Eothen that belonged to us, 
besides some other provisions, and had promised to 
leave them with Armow, at Depot Island, for us, well 
knowing that we would need them there. 

Armow said he had a piece of paper with some writ- 
ing on, that he thought was from Captain Fisher; but 
we supposed it must be some explanation of this extra- 
ordinary circumstance. We therefore hastened with 
our Inuit friends to their igloos, which were on the ice 
about three miles from Depot Island, and found the 
note to be froni Captain Fisher, giving some excuse for 
not leaving some things that he had expected to. The 
inevitable conclusion was then forced upon us that 
Barry had absolutely gone away with the food from 
us without a word of explanation, though he had 
landed at Depot Island and taken off the casks that 



FAMINE. 231 

held our bread when we canie ashore. It is usually 
considered that those who encounter the perils of Arc- 
tic travel have enough to contend with from the very 
nature of the undertaking, and not only their own 
countrymen but all civilized nations have hastened to 
help them when opportunity afforded. Even the sav- 
ages with whom they come in contact have pity for 
them. 

Before resuming our march there was a painful scene 
at the sledges. Toolooah heard of the death of his 
mother, in whose charge he had left his little daughter 
when starting on the expedition, and a group of rela- 
tives and friends stooped around the sledge weejnng, 
the women giving vent to their feelings in prolonged 
wails and moaning. This lasted for about ten minutes, 
during which I learned from the other natives that 
they had a very severe winter and much suffering for 
lack of food. Several deaths had occurred in the tribes 
since we left. A large portion was now at Wager 
River, but would be down in the spring or early in the 
summer. We afterward learned that they, too, had suf- 
fered for food. After shaking hands with other old 
friends at the camp we went into Armow's igloo and 
ate some frozen walrus meat and blubber that tasted 
delicious to us, the blubber especially, it having been 
so long since we had eaten fat food, though so much 
requiring it. They had but a short supply of meat on 
hand when we arrived, and the advent of twenty-two 
hungry travellers and. nineteen starving dogs soon re- 
duced their stores, so that, a storm at once setting in 



232 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

from the north-west, making it a useless task to hunt 
walrus, there was a famine in camp before the end of 
a week. 

They can only hunt walrus successfully at Depot 
Island with a southerly wind to hold the ice-pack to the 
floe. Seals are hunted with dogs to find the blow-hole 
of amog-low, or seal igloo, which, often covered with 
loose snow, is hidden from the hunter. When found, 
a wall of snow is built as a protection against the 
wind, while the hunter waits for hours, and sometimes 
for days, until the seal comes up to blow, when he is 
struck through the hole in the ice with a spear and 
held by a line attached to the boat. It is necessary for 
this style of hunting that the weather should be such 
that one can see at a short distance, or on the trackless 
waste of smooth ice the hunter is apt to get lost. Most 
of the time we were here it was blowing so that land 
could not be seen at one hundred yards' distance. It 
might be well to explain here that, when the wind 
blows, the dry snow fills the air so that it is thicker than 
the severest snow-storm in the temperate zone. The 
Inuits call this condition of affairs pairJe-se-uk-too, and 
one can witness it almost daily during the winter. 

It was the eighth day after our arrival before the 
storm abated sufficiently to let the hunters out with 
any prospect of success. The wind was still from the 
north, and it was very provoking that they could see 
plenty of walrus and seal on the pack, but far beyond 
their reach. Affairs were getting desperate now. In 
the last five days we had but one meal a day, composed 



FAMINE. 233 

at first of about a quarter of a pound of walrus or seal 
meat, but lately of " kow " — that is, the thick hide of 
the walrus, with a thin cover of short hair on it, such 
as is seen on the old-fashioned seal-skin trunks. As 
the hunters got nothing, we were without even our 
"kow" the next day, with the prospect of remaining 
without food until Eeglee-leock and Nanook got back 
from Marble Island, where they went for relief from 
the natives there three days ago. Lieutenant Schwatka 
went with them in order to try to get some food for us 
from the ship. All they had to eat on the way down 
was walrus blubber, and so great was their anxiety for 
us that Lieutenant Schwatka and Eeglee-leock left the 
sled behind at Chesterfield Inlet with Nanook, and 
walked one day and night without resting, reachiug 
Marble Island at six o'clock in the morning, after a 
walk of about seventy-five miles. 

One of the women in our camp died this day, her 
death hastened by privation. She was the wife of 
Te-wort, or " Pajja," as he is universally called, not 
only by the white visitors to Hudson's Bay, but by 
his own people. The benignant Inuit custom that 
allows a plurality of wives to those that desire it, 
leaves him not altogether comfortless in his old age; 
but " Cockeye " was his first and favorite wife, and the 
mother of the great majority of his children. The fu- 
neral ceremonies covered four days, and the morning 
of the fifth " Papa " visited the grave, and after his 
return there was nothing to prevent the usual course 
of events which the burial and mourning customs had 



234 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

interrupted. Even the dogs could be fed if there was 
anything to give them to eat. 

It was a mournful camp after the hunters got in, 
Friday night, the 12th of the month, empty handed. 
They all felt the danger that again threatened them, 
as it had done twice before during the winter, when 
they had to kill and eat some of their starving dogs- 
People spoke to each other in whispers, and every- 
thing was quiet, save for the never-ceasing and piteous 
cries of the hungry children, begging for food which 
their parents could not give them. Most of the time 
I stayed in bed, trying to keep warm and to avoid ex- 
ercise that would only make me all the more hungry. 
It was impossible to keep warm this night, and my 
aching limbs drove sleep from my eyes. 

The closing ceremony was a most touching one. 
After " Papa "had returned from the grave, Armow 
went out of doors and brought in a piece of frozen 
something that it is not polite to specify further than 
that the dogs had entirely done with it, and with it he 
touched every block of snow in a level with the beds 
of the igloo. The article was then taken out of doors 
and tossed up in the air to fall at his feet, and by the 
manner in which it fell he could joyfully announce 
that there was no liability of further deaths in camp 
for some time to come. 

The wind was from the east Saturday, and a little 
better for hunting, so the men were off bright and 
early. About noon there was a joyful sound in camp. 
The women and children rau into our igloo shouting 



FAMINE. 235 

" Iviek seleho" (walrus killed), and fairly jumped up 
and down in their joy. I think the veriest stoic would 
have at least smiled. I know I laughed and said 
"good," though I tried to look dignified and uncon- 
cerned. Thank God, the danger was over, for the 
present at least, and I should be able to start for Mar- 
ble Island in a day or two. It was not until the 17th, 
however, that I got away at last, as no sledges could 
move or the dogs be fed during the four days suc- 
ceeding the death of " Papa's " wife. According to the 
Inuit belief, an infringement of this custom would 
cause a fearful mortality that I did not care to become 
responsible for, and had to wait patiently until the 
gods of the walrus and seal were satisfied that due 
respect had been paid to the memory of the departed. 

The first day of my march to Marble Island I met 
Ikomar coming with relief for our camp, and took 
from his sled one of two boxes containing hard bread 
and some pork, molasses, and tobacco, sending another 
box and the remainder of the food to Henry and 
Frank, who would come down to Marble Island when 
Ikomar returned. I found a note from Lieutenant 
Schwatka, in which I read that a bottle of whiskey 
was among the stores sent ; but in the excitement of 
the occasion and my interest in some papers of 1879, I 
forgot to look for it. My surprise and disappointment 
can therefore be imagined that night, when Toolooah 
dragged the bottle forth from the bottom of the bread 
box, and asked what it was. We each drank some of 
the contents, and I noticed, on pouring it into a tin cup, 



236 8CHWATKAS SEARCH. 

that it was of the consistency of thick syrup, and the 
cup absolutely froze to my lips, at the same time burn- 
ing them as if with a red-hot knitting-needle. I had 
often before heard of a bottle of whiskey freezing to 
a person's lips, but until that moment I had regarded 
the assertion as a base effort to deceive and to divert 
the mind from the actual cause of a too prolonged hold 
of the bottle. I found the whiskey a great comfort on 
the trip to Marble Island, and could not help feeling 
that our long winter journey would have been made 
much more comfortable by some form of ardent spirits, 
probably diluted alcohol, to be. partaken of in small 
quantities each night on arriving in camp, or after un- 
usually fatiguing work and exposure. 

I reached the ship George and Mary at midnight of 
Saturday the 21st, and found every one in bed, except 
Captain Baker, who received me very kindly, and at 
once impressed me as a straightforward, generous- 
spirited man. The cabin of his vessel is exceedingly 
small and inconvenient, but the officers submitted to 
much discomfort in our behalf. I found that the crew 
had been entirely free from scurvy, which had so seri- 
ously afflicted the crews of the fleet at Marble Island 
the previous winter. The entire freedom from this dis- 
ease seems to be attributable to Captain Baker's excel- 
lent management, and the constant feeding of fresh rein- 
deer, walrus, or seal meat to the crew, as well as to those 
in the cabin. 

He had, hoAvever, lost one man, George Vernoi, a 
Canadian, who died of consumption, with which he was 



FAMINE. 237 

suffering when lie shipped at New Bedford, and one 
officer, Mr. Charles A. Lathe, of Swansea, Mass., first 
mate, who froze to death while on a hunting expedition 
to the main-land during the previous fall. He, to- 
gether with Mr. Gilbert, the third officer of the vessel, 
and some Kinnepatoo Inuits, went ashore on the 1st of 
October to secure fresh meat for the crew. In five 
days they had killed seven reindeer, and started to re- 
turn to the ship ; but a gale prevented their working to 
windward, and, their sail torn from the mast, they 
drifted during the night to a small barren island, where 
in the morning their boat was broken and their pro- 
visions washed away. They were suffering extremely 
from thirst, having neglected to bring water with them 
from the shore, and found none on the island. A day 
was spent in endeavoring to repair the boat, and after 
another bitter night on the island, without water, they 
got away at nearly nightfall of the day following and 
reached another island where they found water and 
spent the night. 

Mr. Lathe had already suffered extremely with the 
cold, as well as with hunger and thirst, and next day, 
after walking in a snow-storm about twenty miles to- 
ward the Kinnepatoo village, on the main-land, he gave 
up entirely and lay down to die. Mr. Gilbert urged 
his companion to make another effort, but to no pur- 
pose, and had finally to abandon him, though still alive, 
for the Inuits were nearly out of sight, and as they 
would not wait for him his own life depended on keep- 
ing them in view. Arrived at the Kinnepatoo camp, 



238 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

which was about ten miles from where his companion 
fell, Mr. Gilbert was much exhausted. The natives 
then treated him very kindly and supplied him with 
dry clothing, but no persuasion or promises of reward 
could induce any of them to go back and look after 
Mr. Lathe, whom they said would be dead before they 
found him. Mr. Gilbert remained here for more than 
two months, when the arrival of some of the tribe from 
the north brought the joyful news that the ice bridge 
had formed between Marble Island and the main-land, 
and then they were willing to conduct him to the ship, 
where he arrived on the 23d of December, long after 
all on board had given them both up as dead. 

During the year that we were absent from the verge 
of civilization, as the winter harbor of the whalers may 
be considered, we had travelled 2,819 geographical, or 
3,251 statute miles, most of which was entirely over 
unexplored territory, constituting the longest sledge 
journey ever made, both as to time and distance, and 
the only extended sledge journey ever accomplished in 
the Arctic, except such as have been made through 
countries well known and over routes almost as thor- 
oughly established as post-roads. Our sledge journey 
Stands conspicuous as the only one ever made through 
th.Q entire course of an Arctic winter, and one regarded 
by the natives as exceptionally cold, as the amount of 
suffering encountered by those remaining at Depot 
Island attested, and further confirmed, as we afterward 
learned, by the experience of those who wintered at 
Wager River, where many deaths occurred, attributable 



FAMINE. 239 

to the unusual severity of the season. The party suc- 
cessfully withstood the lowest temperature ever expe- 
rienced by white men in the field, recording one 
observation of — 71 degrees Fahrenheit, sixteen days 
whose average was 100 degrees below the freezing- 
point, and twenty-seven which registered below — 60 
degrees Fahrenheit, during most of which the party 
travelled. In fact, the expedition never took cold into 
consideration, or halted a single day on that account. 

During the entire journey its reliance for food, both 
for man and beast, may be said to have been solely 
npon the resources of the country, as the expedition 
started with less than one month's rations, and it is the 
first in which the white men of an expedition volun- 
tarily lived exclusively upon the same fare as its Es- 
quimau assistants, thus showing that white men can 
safely adapt themselves to the climate and life of the 
Esquimaux, and prosecute their journeys in any season 
or nnder such circumstances as would the natives of 
the country themselves. 

The expedition was the first to make a summer 
search over the route of the lost crews of the Erebus 
and Terror, and while so doing buried the remains of 
every member of that fated j>arty above ground, so that 
no longer the bleached bones of those unfortunate ex- 
plorers whiten the coasts of King William Land and 
Adelaide Peninsula as an eternal rebuke to civilization, 
but all have, for the time being at least, received de- 
cent and respectful interment. 

The most important direct result of the labors of the 



240 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

expedition will undoubtedly be considered the estab- 
lishing of the loss of the Franklin records at the boat 
place in Starvation Cove; and as ever since Dr. Rae's 
expedition of 1854, which ascertained the fate of the 
party, the recovery of the records has been the main 
object of subsequent exploring in this direction, the 
history of the Franklin expedition may now be consid- 
ered as closed. As ascertaining the fate of the party 
was not so gratifying as would have been their rescue or 
the relief of any member thereof, so is it in establishing 
the fate of the record of their labors. Next in im- 
portance to their recovery must be considered the 
knowledge of their irrecoverable loss. 

It may be needless to say here that to Lieutenant 
Schwatka's thorough fitness for his position as com- 
mander of such an expedition may be attributed its 
successful conduct through all the various stages of its 
experience. The thinking public will place the credit 
where it so well belongs, and he will soon find the re- 
ward of success in the approval not only of his coun- 
trymen, but of all interested in the extension of 
geographical knowledge and scientific research. It is 
not too much to say that no man ever entered the 
field of Arctic labors better fitted for the task, physi- 
cally or by education and habits of life and mental 
training, than Lieutenant Schwatka. He is endowed 
by nature with robust health and a powerful frame, 
to which fatigue seems a stranger. A cheerful dispo- 
sition that finds amusement in the passing trifle, and 
powers of concentration that entirely abstract him from 



FAMINE. 241 

his surroundings, keep him free from ennui that is not 
the least disagreeable feature of life in this wilderness. 
And he possesses a very important adjunct, though to 
the uninitiated it may seem trilling, a stomach that can 
relish and digest fat. The habit of command gives 
him a power over our Inuit allies that is not to be dis- 
regarded. " Esquimau Joe " says he never knew them 
to mind any one so strictly and readily as they do 
Lieutenant Schwatka. With all these qualifications 
for a leader, and the prestige of success following close 
upon his heels, it would not be too much to predict for 
him a brilliant Arctic career in the near future. 

His excellent management secured his entire party 
from many of the usual misfortunes of those in the 
field, and deprived the expedition of the sensational 
character it might have assumed in less skilful hands. 
All our movements were conducted in the dull, me- 
thodical, business-like manner of an army on the march. 
Every contingency was calculated upon and provided 
for beforehand, so that personal adventures were almost 

unknown or too trival to mention. 

16 



CHAPTER XV. 



ESQUIMAU HOME -LIFE. 



We had, of course, had abundant opportunities to 
study the habits of the people among whom we had 
lived so long. The government among the Inuit tribes, 
where they have any at all, is patriarchal, consisting of 
advice from the older and more experienced, which is 
recognized and complied with by the younger. Pa- 
rental authority is never strictly enforced, but the chil- 
dren readily defer to the wishes of their parents — not 
only when young, but after reaching man's estate. The 
old people are consulted upon all matters of interest. 
The authority of parents in their family, and of the 
chief, or ish-u-mat-tah, in his tribe, is enforced without 
fear of punishment or hope of reward. 

When a person offends the sentiment of a commu- 
nity, or inflicts injury upon a neighbor, the matter is 
talked over among those interested, and reparation may 
be demanded in the shape of payment, not in money, 
for they have none, or anything that represents it, but 
in goods, such as a knife, a sled, a dog, gun, fish-hooks, 
walrus line, or, indeed, anything that comes handy. 
There the matter ends ; or, if the offender declines to 

settle, the case maybe referred to the ish-u-mat-tah, who 

242 



ESQUIMAU HOME-LIFE. 243 

will probably insist that payment be made. And yet 
should the delinquent still prove contumacious and re- 
fuse to pay, the matter rests there — there is no punish- 
ment for his offence. The well-behaved will talk to the 
refractory one and say, " ma-nmk-poo-now " (no good), 
but that is all. Should he be hungry or his family un- 
provided for, the others will all assist him just the same 
as if he did well and obeyed their laws and customs. 
He can come into their igloos and chat with them upon 
the topics of the day, or join in the meal that is under 
discussion, and the stranger would never know but that 
the utmost harmony existed among them. If you were 
one for whom the community had respect, they might 
privately inform you that "so and so " was "no good," 
but you would never suspect it from their actions to- 
ward him. 

So it is in the treatment of their children. Punish- 
ment for wrong-doing is almost unheard of, and as for 
striking a male child, all would recoil from such a 
thought with horror. The male child, and especially 
the heir, is a prince in his own family circle. Every- 
thing is deferred to his wishes unless he can be per- 
suaded to surrender it. With female children it is dif- 
ferent. They must submit to every act of tyranny on 
the part of their brothers at once, or feel the weight of 
a parent's hand. Nothing would seem more abhorrent 
to an Esquimau mind than the thought of striking a 
man or boy ; but to strike a woman or girl is, on the 
contrary, quite proper, and, indeed, laudable. And 
when one of those powerful savages strikes his wife it 



244 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

is no gentle love tap, but a blow that might stagger a 
pugilist. I remember once seeing an Esquimau for 
whom I entertained the greatest respect, strike his gen- 
tle and affectionate young wife, the mother of two fine 
children. He struck her ujjon the head with an an-out- 
ah (a stick made for beating the snow off of fur cloth- 
ing, and in form and weight like a policeman's club). 
Two blows fell in quick succession upon that devoted 
head, and made the igloo ring again. I was undressed 
and in my sleeping bag at the time, but it was with 
the greatest difficulty that I could restrain myself from 
jumping up and interfering to prevent the outrage. It 
required all the nerve I could muster. I thought I 
would never respect my friend again ; but after a while 
I began to look upon it more calmly, and in the light 
of his early training and daily experience for years 
and years I thought better of him, though not of the 
act. 

They say it is a proper thing to whip women, "it 
makes them good," and they might add, " it is so per- 
fectly safe." I have often talked with them about it 
and tried to explain that it was regarded by white peo- 
ple as cowardly to strike a defenceless creature, but 
this was utterly beyond their comprehension. They 
could understand that it would be wrong to strike a 
male, but a female — that was an entirely different 
thing. Their system of government in regard to both 
families and communities seems to produce good re- 
sults. Children are obedient and attentive to their 
parents, either natural or adopted, and there is but 



ESQUIMAU HOME-LIFE. 245 

little occasion for governmental interference in the con- 
cerns of the people. 

Whenever difference of opinion gives rise to diffi- 
culty and their intercourse, their usual method of 
settling the dispute is for those immediately concerned 
to assemble in some igloo, with several of the old men, 
and talk the matter over until some definite plan of 
settlement is reached. This usually proves effectual. 
I have seen several of these talks, and though I could 
not understand much of what was said, unless I knew 
beforehand about what it would be, I could see that 
the spirit of conciliation manifested itself. All seemed 
disposed to do what was right, not from fear of pun- 
ishment for doing wrong, but simply because it was 
right. They are not given to ceremony on such occa- 
sions, or, in fact, upon any other occasion. All the 
women retire from the igloo or tupic where the talk is 
to be held when the men come in. Then some raw 
meat is produced, if there is any to be had, and after 
eating pipes are lighted and the subject for discussion 
is approached, conversation gradually drifting in that 
direction. Esquimaux never do anything in a hurry, 
and these long-winded roundabout chats are exceed- 
ingly congenial to their tastes. So imbued do they 
become with this idea that even " Joe," notwithstand- 
ing his long residence with civilized people, could not 
shake it off. 

For instance, Lieutenant Schwatka would say : — 
" * Joe,' I wish you would tell the hunters that for the 
present they must save the saddles of the reindeer they 



246 SCHWA TEA'S SEARCH. 

kill to go upon the sleds, and feed the remainder of the 
carcasses to the dogs." " Joe " would invariably say, 
"Yes, to-night we will all get together and talk it 
over." " There is no necessity for talking it over, 
1 Joe ; ' just tell them what I say." But, nevertheless, 
" Joe " would have his powwow, and his feed and his 
smoke, even upon less important matters than the one 
mentioned in illustration. 

The Esquimaux are polygamists, no distinction what- 
ever being placed upon the number of wives a man 
shall have. I have never, however, known of any in- 
stance of one having more than two at a time. This is 
very common, however, especially among the Iwilliks 
and Kinnepatoos, where there is a surplus of women. 
At least half of their married men have two wives. 
Every woman is married as soon as she arrives at a 
marriageable age, and whenever a man dies his wife is 
taken by some one else, so that with them old maids 
and widows are unknown. 

Instances of polygamy are not so common among the 
Netchillik nation, for the reason, it is said by the tribes 
in their vicinity, that they have a custom that prevents 
the accumulation of women to be taken care of. Their 
neighbors say that they kill their female babes as soon 
as born. The first is usually allowed to live, and one 
other may stand some chance, but that ends the matter. 
I cannot vouch for the truth of the assertion from my 
personal knowledge. I can only say that there were 
more unmarried young men among the Netchilliks and 
Ookjooliks whom we met than in any other tribe, and but 



ESQUIMAU HOME-LIFE. 247 

few men with two wives. Among the children there 
were plenty of boys and but few girls. I understand that 
the mothers often would be willing to rear their daugh- 
ters ; but the fathers, who have supreme control in their 
families, insist upon getting rid of useless mouths and 
choke their infant babes to death, the mothers readily 
acquiescing. Equeesik, one of our hunters on the sledge 
journey, who is himself a Netckillik, denies this charge 
of female Herodism. He told me that it used to be 
the custom with his people, or some of them at any 
rate, but that they do not do so any more. I know he 
has two daughters, one of which was born within a 
few days' march of Depot Island, on our return trip, 
and has no son. 

The custom of giving away their children is very 
common among all tribes, and a young wife who loses 
her first-born has seldom any difficulty in getting a 
substitute from some one bettsr supplied. Infants are 
never weaned. I have seen children four and five 
years old playing, out doors, stop once in a while to run 
in to their mothers, and cry until they received their 
milk. 

There is very little regard for life manifested by any 
of the Esquimaux. Several instances of suddeu and 
strange deaths occurred among the infant children at 
Depot Island and vicinity while we were encamped 
there. If it were a male child that died, it occasioned 
some regret, but if it were a female it was considered 
all right. Even if it were well known that an Inuit 
had murdered his child, or had killed any one else in 



248 SCHWA TEA'S SEARCH. 

cold blood, nothing would be done about it, except 
that the relatives of a murdered man would probably 
ask to be paid for the slaughter, and if the request were 
complied with, that would set the matter at rest. 
Should it not be complied with, the probability is that 
the sons or brothers of the victim would embrace some 
opportunity to kill the murderer and give rise for a 
demand of payment from the family of the slain mur- 
derer, and in case of non-fulfilment a vendetta be estab- 
lished, as is the case now in the tribe that dwells on the 
coast of Baffin's Bay, near the entrance to Eclipse Sound. 
Just before we left Depot Island, in the summer of 
1880, there arrived several families from that section of 
the Arctic, who came, I was informed, to get rid of 
the vendetta. It seems that the present cause of 
trouble was a young man, quite small in stature, but very 
active and energetic, of whom the refugees were very 
much afraid. Some of their relatives had killed this 
young man's father, and when they refused to pay for 
it he took occasion to kill the murderer, for which, as is 
the custom, they in turn demanded payment. He re- 
fused satisfaction, and one night about a year ago some 
of these people went to his igloo while the family were 
in bed, and through a small hole that had melted 
through the snow, they pointed a rifle, and, as they sup- 
posed, killed their enemy, of whom they were so much 
afraid. Unfortunately for them they found they had 
made a mistake, as instead of killing him they had 
killed his oldest son, who lay alongside of him in bed. 
The father said nothing, but reached for his gun, which 



ESQUIMAU HOME-LIFE. 249 

he had always convenient for an emergency, and shortly 
after the shot was fired, when the murderer returned to 
peep through the hole and see the effect of his aim, the 
father shot him dead. Then it was that the remaining 
members of the family found that this business was 
getting to be a nuisance and concluded to leave. As 
they told me when speaking of the matter, " So much 
shooting is no good." 

Their method of carrying on this sort of warfare is 
not at all like the duello of Christendom. They don't 
stand up and fight it out, facing each other ; but, on the 
contrary, appear to be good friends all the time, until 
the aggrieved one finds what he considers to be the pro- 
pitious moment, and acts accordingly. They never do 
anything on the spur of the moment. It takes them a 
long time to make up their minds, and whatever they 
do they do deliberately. The rapid and just retribu- 
tion that followed the killing of the child alluded to in 
this illustration is the only instance of the kind I know 
of, though I know of a number where a few weeks or 
years intervened, the enemies associating like the others 
and eating in common. 

There are no wedding ceremonies among the Esqui. 
maux, and hardly anything like sentiment is known. 
The relation of man and wife is purely a matter of con- 
venience. The woman requires food, and the man needs 
some one to make his clothing and to take charge of 
his dwelling while he is hunting. Marriages are usu- 
ally contracted while the interested parties are chil- 
dren. The father of the boy selects a little girl who is 



250 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

to be his daughter-in-law, and pays her father some- 
thing. Perhaps it is a snow-knife, or a sled, or a clog, or 
now, that many of them are armed with firelocks, the 
price paid may be a handful of powder and a dozen 
percussion caps. The children are then affianced, 
and when arrived at a proper age they live together. 
The wife then has her face tattooed with lamp-black 
and is regarded as a matron iu society. The method 
of tattooing is to pass a needle under the skin, and as 
soon as it is withdrawn its course is followed by a 
thin piece of pine stick dipped in oil and rubbed in 
the soot from the bottom of a kettle. The forehead is 
decorated with a letter V in double lines, the angle 
very acute, passing down between the eyes almost to 
the bridge of the nose, and sloping gracefully to the 
right and left before reaching the roots of the hair. 
Each cheek is adorned with an egg-shaped pattern, 
commencing near the wing of the nose and sloping up- 
ward toward the corner of the eye ; these lines are also 
double. The most ornamented part, however, is the 
chin, which receives a gridiron pattern ; the lines double 
from the edge of the lower lip, and reaching to the 
throat toward the corners of the mouth, sloping out- 
ward to the angle of the lower jaw. This is all that is 
required by custom, but some of the belles do not stop 
here. Their hands, arms, legs, feet, and in fact their 
whole bodies are covered with blue tracery that would 
throw Captain Constantinus completely in the shade. 
Ionic columns, Corinthian capitals, together with Gothic 
structures of every kind, are erected wherever there is 



ESQUIMAU HOME- LIFE. 251 

an opportunity to place them ; but I never saw any at- 
tempt at figure or animal drawing for personal decora- 
tion. The forms are generally geometrical in design 
and symmetrical in arrangement, each limb receiving 
the same ornamentation as its fellow. None of the men 
are tattooed. 

Some tribes are more profuse in this sort of deco- 
ration than others. The Iwillik, and Kinnepatoos are 
similar, and as I have described ; but the Netckillik, 
Ookjoolik, and Ooqueesiksillik women have the designs 
upon their faces constructed with three lines instead 
of two, one of them being broader than the others. 
The pattern is the same as that of the Iwilliks and 
Kinnepatoos, with the addition of an olive branch at 
the outside corners of the eyes and mouth. 

Marriage with them is not the sacred institution of 
civilization, but exchanges are very common. If a man 
who is going on a journey has a wife encumbered with 
a child that would make travelling unpleasant, he ex- 
changes wives with some friend who remains in camp 
and has no such inconvenience. Sometimes a man will 
want a younger wife to travel with, and in that case 
effects an exchange, and sometimes such exchanges are 
made for no especial reason, and among friends it is a 
usual thing to exchange wives for a week or two about 
every two months. Unmarried men who are going on 
a journey have no difficulty in borrowing a wife for 
the time being, and sometimes purchase the better half 
altogether. 

It might be supposed that in such a state of society 



252 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

there would be no romances, no marrying for love ; but 
that would be a mistake, for there have been several 
romantic little episodes that came under my observa- 
tion during my residence in North Hudson's Bay. 
There is a poor old man dwelling with the Iwilliks, 
near Depot Island, named Iteguark, who had two very 
attractive and useful wives, or Nu-lee-aug-ar, as is the 
native term. The old man had been a good hunter, 
but a few years ago met with an accident that resulted 
in his right knee becoming stiffened, and his hunting 
days were over. He can still hunt seals through the 
ice, but cannot work up to them on top of the ice, nor 
can he chase the reindeer and musk-ox on his native 
hills. Then it was that Oxeomadiddlee looked with 
envious eyes upon the youngest aud fairest of Ite- 
guark's wives, and induced her to come and live with 
him. She knew that her new lover was strong and 
active, and better able to support her than her old love, 
and listened to the voice of the tempter. 

Iteguark was not disposed to submit meekly to this 
treachery on the part of his friend Oxeomadiddlee, so 
one morning while the truant wife and her new hus- 
band were sleeping in their igloo, Iteguark entered and 
sought to take the life of the seducer with a hunting 
knife. But Oxeomadiddlee was on his guard, and 
being a man of immense strength, he caught his adver- 
sary by the wrist, and by the sheer force of his grip 
compelled him to drop the weapon on the floor. He 
then released his hold, and Iteguark rushed out to his 
own igloo and got his bow and quiver; but his enemy 



ESQUIMAU HOME-LIFE. 253 

was still watchful, and took the bow and arrows away 
and destroyed them. Here ended hostilities. Oxeoma- 
diddlee paid the old man for his wife, and that settled 
it forever. Presently another Innit, named Eyerloo, 
fell desperately in love with poor old Iteguark's re 
maining wife, and with his arts and blandishments 
won her away from her husband. There was no fight 
this time. The poor old man gave up completely, and 
said the world was all wrong, and he only waited for 
Lis summons to leave it and mount the golden stairs. 

A few years ago an Igloolip limit named Kyack 
won the affections of one of Ikomar's wives, and this 
brought on a duel in which Kyack came very near 
leaving Mrs. Kyack a widow. Ikomar got the head of 
his enemy in chancery, and tightened his arm around 
his neck until Kyack dropped lifeless upon the snow. 
He gradually recovered, and would have returned the 
stolen wife, but Ikomar refused to take her back, and 
demanded payment instead. This was tendered to 
him, and being appeased by the offer further trouble 
was avoided. 

Punnie, one of Armow's daughters, was, in her 
youth, affianced to Sebeucktelee, but when she reached 
a marriageable age became the wife of Conwechungk, 
her adopted brother. The pretext for this new ar- 
rangement was that Sebeucktelee's father had not made 
payment at the time he made the wedding contract, and 
that Punnie loved Conwechungk better anyhow, and 
would take advantage of the omission of the intended 
father-in-law. It made no difference that Conwechungk 



254 SCHWAIKA'S SEARCH. 

had another wife — in fact, it was all the better on 
that account, for he would have one for himself and 
another to loan around to his neighbors. When I 
left Depot Island I noticed that he had not only loaned 
his first wife away, but had traded his dearly beloved 
Punnie for Tockoleegeetais' wife for an indefinite 
period, while Sebeucktelee had taken to his bosom Net- 
chuk, the discarded wife of Shockpenark. But life is 
altogether too short to allow of a complete and reliable 
record being made of the social gossip of an Esquimau 
village. Intermarriages are common, and everybody is 
related to every one else in the most intricate and aston- 
ishing manner. I once read of a man who married 
a widow, and his father, subsequently marrying the 
daughter of this same widow, was driven insane by try- 
ing to ascertain the exact relationship of their children. 
Such trifles have no effect upon the Inuit brain, or the en- 
tire nation would long ago have become raving maniacs. 

The natives of Hudson's Strait dress very much like 
the others, the difference being in the women's hoods, 
which, instead of being long and narrow, are long and 
wide, and provided with a drawing string. Instead of 
the long stockings, they wear a pair of leggings that 
reach about half-way up the thigh, and trousers that 
are much shorter than those of the western tribes. 
The Kinnepatoos are by all odds the most tasteful in 
their dress, and their clothing is made of skins more 
carefully prepared and better sewed than that of the 
others, except in occasional instances. 

The bedding of all these Esquimaux is made of rein- 



ESQ UIMA U HOME-LIFE. 



255 



deer-skins — thick untanned skins of the buck forming 
what corresponds with the mattresses, and a blanket to 
cover them is made of well-tanned doe-skins, sewn 
together so as to be wide at the top and narrowing 
into a bag at the feet. All sleep naked, winter and 





ESQUIMAUX BUILDING A HUT. 



summer, a single blanket formed of three doe-skins 
covering a father, mother, and all the children. 

It would astonish a civilized spectator to see how 
many people can be stowed away to sleep in one small 
igloo and under one blanket ; but the proverbial illu- 
tration of a box of sardines would almost represent a 
skirmish line in comparison. Each one is rolled up 
into a little ball, or else arms, legs, and bodies are so 



256 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

inextricably interwoven, that it would be impossible 
for any but tlie owners to unravel them. And these 
bodies are like so many little ovens, so that, no matter 
how cold it be, when once within the igloo, the snow- 
block door put up and chinked, and all stowed away 
in bed, Jack Frost can be successfully defied. 

As probably many people know, an igloo is usually 
built of snow. The word, however, means house, and 
as their houses consist of a single room, it also means 
room. Sometimes at points that are regularly occupied 
during the winter months igloos are built of stones, and 
moss piled up around and over them, so that when 
covered by the winter snows they make very comfort- 
able dwellings. This is the case at Igloolik, which 
means the place of igloos, and also near Tulloch Point, 
on King William Land, where the ruins of these un- 
derground houses were quite numerous. They had 
been built a great many years ago by the Ookjooliks, 
when they occupied the land before the Netchillik 
invasion. A long, low passage-way leads into each 
dwelling, so constructed as to exclude the wind from 
the interior, though ventilation is permitted by leav- 
ing open the door. This, by the way, is an Inuit cus- 
tom. Even in the coldest weather the door is open, ex- 
cept when the occupants are asleep, and it is only closed 
then to keep the dogs from making a raid on the igloo. 
If the door faces the wind, a shelter is erected outside 
to cut off the wind, so that the door need not be 
closed. The coldest day I ever saw, when the ther- 
mometer was seventy-one degrees below zero, the door 



ESQUIMAU HOME-LIFE. 



257 



of our igloo was open all the time we were not asleep. 
A snow igloo is made of snow-blocks about three feet 
long by eighteen inches wide and five or six inches thick. 
The snow-knife is simply a large thin-bladed knife, 
like a cheese-knife of the grocery stores, with a handle 




SECTION AND PLAN OF ESQUIMAU HUT. 



made large enough to be conveniently grasped with 
both hands. Before iron and knives became so plentiful 
as at present, snow-knives were made of bone and rein- 
deer or musk-ox horn, but such knives are quite rare 
now. The Netchillik, Ookjoolik, and Ooqueesiksillik 

tribes are still quite deficient in iron weapons and im- 

17 



258 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

plernents, and many of their knives are marvels of 
ingenuity. I saw several made of a little tip of iron, 
perhaps an inch square, mounted on a handle two feet 
long, and so shaped that the iron would do most of the 
cutting and scratching, and the handle acted merely as 
a wedge to assist the operation. I also saw a man 
making a knife by cutting a thick piece of iron with a 
cold chisel, afterward to be pounded out flat and 
ground down on stones. The entire operation would 
probably take about three or four weeks with the poor 
tools at their disposal. 

The builder selects snow of the proper consistency 
by sounding a drift with a cane, made for the purpose, 
of reindeer horn, straightened by steaming, and worked 
down until about half an inch in diameter, with a 
ferule of walrus tusk or the tooth of a bear on the 
bottom. By thrusting this into the snow he can tell 
whether the layers deposited by successive winds are 
separated by bands of soft snow, which would cause 
the blocks to break. When the snow is selected, he 
digs a pit to the depth of eighteen inches or two feet, 
and about the length of the snow-block. He then 
steps down into the pit and proceeds to cut out the 
blocks by first cutting down at the ends of the pit, and 
then the bottom afterward, cutting a little channel 
about an inch or two deep, marking the thickness of 
the proposed block. 

Now comes the part that requires practice to accom- 
plish successfully. The expert will, with a few thrusts 
of his knife in just the right places, split off the snow- 



ESQUIMAU HOME-LIFE. 259 

block and lift it carefully out to await removal to its 
position on the wall. The tyro will almost inevitably 
break the block into two or three pieces, utterly unfit 
for the use of the builder. When two men are build- 
ing an igloo, one cuts the blocks and the other erects 
the walls. When sufficient blocks have been cut out 
to commence work with, the builder marks with his 
eye, or perhaps draws a line with his knife describing 
the circumference of the building, usually a circle about 
ten or twelve feet in diameter. The first row of blocks 
is then arranged, the blocks placed so as to incline in- 
ward and resting against each other at the ends, thus 
affording mutual support. When this row is completed 
the builder cuts away the first and second blocks, slant- 
ing them from the ground upward, so that the second 
tier resting upon the edges of the first row can be con- 
tinued on and around spirally, and by gradually in- 
creasing the inward slant a perfect dome is constructed 
of such strength that the builder can lie flat on the 
outside while chinking the interstices between the 
blocks. The chinking is, however, usually done by the 
women and children as the building progresses, and 
additional protection secured from the winds in very 
cold weather by banking up a large wooden snow 
shovel, the snow at the base often being piled to the 
depth of three or four feet. This makes the igloo per- 
fectly impervious to the wind in the most tempestuous 
weather. When the house is completed, the builders 
are walled in. Then a small hole about two feet square 
is cut in the wall, on the side away from where the 



260 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

entrance is to be located, and is used to pass in the 
lamps and bedding. It is then walled up and the regu- 
lar door cut, about two feet high, and nitched at the 
top. It would bring bad luck to carry the bedding 
into the igloo by the same door it would be taken out. 
Before the door is opened the bed is constructed, of 
snow-blocks, and made from one to three or four feet 
high, and occupies about three-fourths of the entire 
space. The higher the bed and the lower the door, the 
warmer the igloo will be. 

The house being built, passes into the care of the 
women, who arrange the beds and put up the lamps 
for lighting, warming, and cooking. The woman's place 
in the igloo is on either side of the bed, and next to the 
wall. In front of her she arranges her lamp, which is a 
long, shallow basin of soapstone, the front edge straight 
and the back describing an arc. The wick, which is com- 
posed of pulverized moss, is arranged along the front edge, 
and kept moistened by the oil that fills the lamp by tilt- 
ing it forward — the lamp being delicately poised, with 
this end in view, upon three sticks driven into the snow 
beneath it. If there be two women, they occupy both 
ends of the bed, each with her lamp in front of her. 
Over each lamp is constructed a frame upon which to 
dry stockings that have become moistened by perspi- 
ration during the day's exercise, and from which de- 
pends the kettle for melting snow or ice to make water 
or to cook. The distinctive Esquimau kettle (oo-quee-sik) 
is made of soapstone and is flat bottomed. It is made 
long and narrow, so as to fit the flame of the lamp, and 



ESQUIMAU HOME-LIFE, 



261 



to derive all the benefit possible therefrom. It has the 
advantage over the iron and copper kettles, that have 
come into use through trade with the 'whalemen and 
Hudson Bay Company's posts, of cooking more rapidly 
and of not being injured if left over the flame without 
water. 

It is the duty of the women to attend constantly to 




ESQUIMAU WOMAN COOKING. 



the lamps, to melt water for drinking and cooking, and 
to cook the food. They also turn the wet shoes and 
stockings inside out and dry them at night. A " good 
wife " is one who sleeps but little after a hard day's 
march, but attends constantly to the articles upon the 
drying frame, turning them over and replacing the dry 
with wet. When one frame full of clothing has been 



262 SCHWA TEA'S SEARCH. 

dried, she places the articles under her in the bed, so 
that the heat of her body will keep them warm and 
dry, and replaces them upon the frame with other ar- 
ticles. She gets up long before any one else is awake 
and looks carefully over all the clothing to see what 
mending is required. Her position, when not asleep, is 
with her bare feet bent under her in Turkish fashion, 
and there she sits all day long before her fire, engaged 
in making clothing, cooking, or other household duties, 
and is seldom idle. When at work she lifts up her 
voice and sings. The tune lacks melody but not 
power. It is a relief to her weary soul, and few would 
be cruel enough to deprive her of that comfort, for her 
pleasures are not many. She is the slave of her chil- 
dren and her husband, and is treated to more abuse 
than affection. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



HOMEWARD. 



Notwithstanding the natural anxiety to return 
again to our native land after so long an absence, it 
was with genuine regret that we parted from our poor 
savage friends on Depot Island to embark upon the 
vessel that was to carry us home. Nor was the sorrow 
to us alone, for these simple children of the ice have 
warm hearts. Some of the old women embraced us 
tenderly, while the salt tears cut deep furrows through 
the dirt upon their faces. The younger ones ex- 
claimed, and evidently with truth, "Watcheow oounga 
keeieyoot amasuet" (By and by me cry plenty). 

" Papa," Armow, and Ishnark — better known as 
" Jerry," or " Jelly," as they pronounce it — held our 
hands as if reluctant to let go, and gazing wistfully 
into our faces said, " Shoogarme watcheow tukko " (I 
hope by and by to see you). It is impossible to trans- 
late exactly their meaning in this short sentence, but it 
is more as if they would say, " Surely it seems impos- 
sible that we shall never see you again." 

That they were in earnest in the expression of their 

grief I have every reason to believe, for they had shown 

their kindly interest and affection at a time that if ever 

263 



264 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

one's affection is put to the test theirs was. They had, 
so to speak, adopted us as their children. Not merely 
had they divided their last morsel of food, but had 
given to us and their children, and had gone without 
themselves. It was merely some walrus hide that had 
been saved to make soles for their shoes, but neverthe- 
less it was literally their last mouthful, and when that 
was gone we all went hungry until the long-continued 
storm abated and an opportunity was afforded to kill a 
walrus, which appeased our hunger for the time being. 
Is it unnatural that we should absolutely love these 
kind friends, or was it a thing to be ashamed of that 
theirs were not the only tears that fell at parting ? Of 
all savages — I was going to say of all people — commend 
me to these simple-hearted Esquimaux, with all their 
dirt and gluttony, for genuine, self-sacrificing hospital- 
ity. As we were being rowed out to the ship by an 
Inuit crew at ten o'clock on the night of the 1st of 
August, our faces were turned toward the land, where 
the sky was still brilliant with the light of a gorgeous 
sunset. Lieutenant Schwatka sat beside me in the 
bow of the boat, and neither of us had spoken since we 
left the shore, until he turned to me and said, " I was 
not prepared for this. 1 ' 

" Prepared for what ? " said I. 

" I was not prepared to feel the pain of parting from 
these people and this country as I feel it now. Even the 
near prospect of getting back to civilization, and of meet- 
ing friends and hearing news scarcely ameliorates the 
pang at this moment. But it will soon be over, I suppose." 



HOMEWARD. 265 

At last we were all on board the ship, and when the 
men began to weigh anchor, merrily singing over their 
work, the three boat-loads of Inuits put off hastily, 
though they paddled around the vessel and seemed 
loath to depart. 

" Where is Toolooah — did he bid you good-by, gov- 
ernor ? " said I to Lieutenant Schwatka. 

" No,' 1 he replied, " but you can see him here ; " and 
stepping up to the side of the ship I saw our Toolooah 
seated in the bow of Armow's boat, his head bent 
down and his face buried in his hands. 

"I can understand his feelings exactly," said the 
governor. " He dare not trust himself to go through 
the ordeal, poor fellow. He knew he would break 
down when it came to that, and I am glad he didn't, 
for I am afraid I should too." 

Until the morning that we left, it had been confi- 
dently expected that Toolooah and his family, consist- 
ing of his wife and two children, would accompany us 
to the United States. It had been the great ambition 
of his life to visit the wonderful white men's country, 
and Lieutenant Schwatka had promised to take him 
home, provided he could obtain the consent of the cap- 
tain of the vessel in which we returned. Captain 
Baker had already given his consent, and there seemed 
nothing to interfere with their plans. Toolooah and 
his wife were busy in securing suitable clothing in 
which to appear abroad when occasion should arise for 
wearing it, and the faithful services he had rendered on 
our sledge journey were to be recompensed in the 



266 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

United States, from which he would take home an out- 
fit that should last as long as he lived. But the last 
day we were on shore some of the old men came to 
Lieutenant Schwatka, and begged he would not be 
angry if they said that a long and anxious consultation 
had resulted in the conclusion that it would be running 
too great a risk for Toolooah to go to the United 
States. No man of their tribe had ever been to a 
civilized county but "Esquimau Joe," who, by the 
bye, had also made up his mind to remain in the 
Arctic a year or two longer. He had told them of the 
great mortality attending those of his people from 
Cumberland Sound who had gone to England and 
America, and they were afraid. I think that Too- 
looah, personally, would have willingly encountered 
the risk ; but with these people, such government as 
they have is patriarchal, and the young men submit 
with the best grace to the decision of their elders. It 
was a matter of regret both to Lieutenant Schwatka 
and myself that we did not have an opportunity to 
bestow the attention upon him in our own land that 
his constant care for our safety and comfort in his 
country entitled him to at our hands. 

The anchor soon swung at the bow of the George and 
Mary, and her yards were squared for Marble Island, 
where we were to take on board water for the home- 
ward-bound voyage. Our Inuit friends shouted their 
last farewells, and we were actually en route home. 

Fortunate was it for us that there was a kind-hearted 
whaler in Hudson's Bay, or we would have been com- 



HOMEWARD. 267 

pel led to spend at least one more winter in the polar 
regions. But Captain Baker treated us with the 
greatest consideration not only while we were his 
guests during the spring at Marble Island, but when 
we returned to Depot Island he gave us such pro- 
visions from his stores as he could spare, and without 
this assistance we would have suffered considerably, 
for twice again after our return the natives were 
entirely without food for several days. But instead 
of our starving with them, we were enabled to save 
these poor people much suffering by sharing our slen- 
der stock with them. We left the ship in her winter 
quarters on the 3d of May, and on the 11th pitched our 
tent on the highest rock on Depot Island. The natives 
soon came from their igloos on the ice about a mile 
away, and gathered around us. Whenever they killed 
a walrus or a seal they brought us some of the meat, 
for which we paid them, as usual, with powder, caps, 
or lead. But from the 2 2d of May, when they killed 
two walrus, until the 7th of June, when the ship hove 
in sight from her winter quarters, the weather had 
been such that they had killed nothing but two small 
seals. The consequence was that for several days they 
were without food, and our provisions were gone the 
day before, so that when the ship was seen we were 
waiting patiently until the limits returned from the 
pursuit of some walrus that were seen on the ice, in 
order to break our fast. It was not only a joyful sight 
to see the ship at this time, but an additional pleasure 
to note the cloud of thick black smoke that hung over 



268 SCHWATKA'S WA'RVH. 

her deck, denoting that they had killed a whale and 
were boiling out the blubber. This was good luck for 
the officers and crew, and fortunate for us, because the 
black skin of the whale is exceedingly palatable and 
wholesome food, and there would in all probability be 
enough of it on board to keep us and our Inuit allies 
from hunger for a long time, at least until they could 
secure food by hunting. 

We were pleased to learn that the whalers had 
killed the only whale they saw, which augured a suc- 
cessful season for them. It eventually proved, how- 
ever, that the augury was delusive, for from that time 
forward they did not see another whale, though they 
cruised the bay until the 9th of August. Subse- 
quently we learned that the whales had all gone out 
of Hudson's Bay through the strait in the early 
spring, owing to the entire absence of whale food, 
which had probably been destroyed by the intense 
severity of the winter. The natives living near North 
Bluff and Hudson's Starit had seen plenty of whales 
passing eastward early in the season, when the ice was 
still thick, or, as one of them told me, " when the young 
seal are born," which is in the latter part of March and 
early in April. They had killed three large whales 
and struck two others that escaped. We went into 
North Bay and found these Inuits encamped on the 
main-land, about fifteen miles from the mouth of the 
bay, and Captain Baker bought from them a head of 
whalebone, which they said was at Akkolear, which 
was still further up the bay, or strait, as it proved to be. 



HOMEWARD. 269 

Mr. "Williams, first officer of the George and Mary, 
went with two boats and some Inuit guides, sailing 
directly up the bay toward the north-west until it de- 
bouched again upon Hudson's Strait, about fifty miles 
above where we were anchored, or about sixty-five 
miles north-west of North Bluff. Here he found the 
whalebone as described by the natives, and brought it 
on board after an absence of four days. 

The large island, or, in fact, two islands that are thus 
formed, as there is another passage into the sea about 
twenty-five miles north of North Bluff, are called by 
the natives " Kigyuektukjuar," in view of their insular 
character. Kigyuektuk means island, and especially a 
large island, King William Land being thus distin- 
guished by them as the island. A " small island " is 
Kigyuektower, and " long island " Kigyuektukjuar. 

The land on the north and east of North Bay is 
called Queennah, which means " all right," and was 
given to it in view of the fact that in winter it <is 
filled with reindeer, who can go no farther south in 
their migration, and spend the winter on the Meta 
Incognita of Queen Elizabeth, or the Queennah of the 
Esquimaux. Akkolear means a narrow passage or 
channel, where the land is visible on both sides as you 
pass through. The natives we met here are more 
cleanly in their persons and dress than any others we 
saw on the Arctic, but there their superiority ends. 
They are most persistent beggars, and indeed require 
watching, or they will sometimes steal, a vice to which 
the Esquimaux as a nation are little given. I saw two 



270 SCHWAIKA'S SEARCH. 

of their women, while sitting in our cabin, comb their 
hair without discovering a single specimen of the genus 
pediculosum ; while, should any one of the other tribes 
we met have done the same thing, the result would have 
been most overwhelmingly satisfactory. But though 
they are dirty they will neither lie nor steal, except in 
rare instances. The natives of the north shore of 
Hudson's Strait were spoken of by the early explorers 
of the present century — Parry, Back, and Lyon — as 
rude, dirty, and unreliable, and they have not improved 
much since that day, except in regard to dirt. They 
are certainly more cleanly — one good trait they have 
learned from association with white people, to counter- 
balance many vices thus acquired. But never was I 
more confounded than when an old woman, who 
brought a pair of fine fur stockings to Captain Baker, 
asked for a pack of cards in exchange. The captain 
had brought her to me to act as interpreter for him, 
but though the word she used sounded familiar to me 
I could not for the life of me remember what it meant 
in English until she made motions of dealing cards 
and said, " Keeng, kevven, zhak." Then the light 
burst upon me, but nothing had been further from my 
mind than playing-cards as an article of trade. 

Three of these women wore 'calico skirts, but they 
looked as much out of place on them as they would on 
the men, and I came to the conclusion that it does in- 
deed require some art to look well in a " pinned back." 
These women, when their skirts were in the way of 
climbing up the side of the vessel, either gathered them 



HOMEWARD. 271 

up out of the way or took them off and passed them up 
separately. Their clothing was complete without this 
civilized inconvenience, which had no more to do with 
their costume than the buttons on the back of a man's 
coat. 

The temperature in Hudson's Strait was much lower 
than in the bay, and we felt the cold intensely. I be- 
gan to imagine that my acclimatization had not been 
complete, until I noticed that the Inuits who came on 
board complained of the cold as much as we did. In- 
deed, I believe that one feels the cold in an Arctic 
summer much more disagreeably than in the winter. 
The low temperature in the strait is in all probability 
attributable to the ice that is constantly there, either 
local ice or the pack brought down from Fox Channel 
by the wind and current. The great Grinnell Glacier, 
on Meta Incognita, which Captain Hall estimated to be 
one hundred miles in extent, must also have consid- 
erable effect upon the climate. As we passed down 
toward Resolution Island we could see this great sea 
of ice from the deck of the vessel in all its solemn 
grandeur, surrounded by lofty peaks clad in their ever- 
enduring mantles of snow. 

I did not go on shore while our vessel lay at anchor 
in North Bay, for I had no anxiety to encounter the 
mosquitoes which abound there, though not to the ex- 
tent that makes life such a burden as upon the eastern 
shores of Hudson's Bay. While our water-casks were 
being filled at Marble Island in the early part of 
August, Captain Baker and I went in one of the ship's 



272 SCHWATXA'S SEARCH. 

boats to the main-land, about fifteen miles to the south- 
west, to secure a lot of musk-ox skins and other articles 
of trade at a Kinnepatooan encampment there, and 
though we spent but one night on shore, I never before 
endured such torture from so small a cause as the mos- 
quitoes occasioned us. Indeed, my hands and his, for 
a month afterward, were swollen and sore from the 
venom of these abominable little pests. They are 
not like civilized mosquitoes, for no amount of brush- 
ing or fanning will keep them away. Their sociability 
is unbounded, and you have absolutely to push them 
off, a handful at a time, while their places are at once 
filled by others, the air teeming with them all the time. 
The natives keep their tents filled with smoke from a 
slow, smouldering fire in the doorway, which is the 
only plan to render them habitable at all ; but the 
remedy is only one degree better than the disease, 
as Captain Baker remarked to me, with his eyes filled 
with tears. The only relief from these torments is a 
strong breeze from the water, which carries them 
away ; but even then it is not safe to seek shelter 
in the lee of a tent, for there they swarm and are as 
vigorous in their attacks as during a calm. The men 
wear mosquito-net hoods over their heads and shoulders 
while in camp or hunting, and women and children 
live in the smoke of their smouldering peat fires. 

The shores of Hudson's Bay are low and barren, and 
abound in lakes of every size and shape. They are too 
low to produce glaciers, but are just right for the pro- 
duction of the finest crop of mosquitoes to be found in 



HOMEWARD. 273 

the world, as lias previously been remarked by Frank- 
lin, Richardson, Back, and, indeed, all the explorers of 
this territory. After leaving Marble Island we sailed 
toward Depot Island, Cape Fullerton, and Whale Point, 
so that we might see any other ships that had come in 
this season and get some news from them. We found 
plenty of ice in Daly Bay and the entrance to Howe's 
Welcome, the ice bridge still extending from near 
Whale Point to Southampton Island. 

On Sunday the Sth of August, while moving slowly 
through the ice-pack oif Cape Fullerton, we saw a she- 
bear and cub asleep on a large cake of ice about a 
quarter -of a mile from the ship, and one of the boats 
was lowered to go in pursuit. Lieutenant Schwatka, 
Mr. Williams, and I went in the boat, and quite enjoyed 
the exciting chase. Before the boat was lowered the 
bears seemed aware of the presence of danger, and took 
to the water, the old one in her motherly anxiety for 
the safety of her cub carrying it on her back most of 
the time. When they found the boat gaining upon 
them, and close at hand, the}^ left the water and stood 
at bay on a cake of ice. A bullet from Lieutenant 
Schwatka's rifle broke the mother's backbone and she 
dropped, when Mr. Williams gave her the coup de grace 
with a bullet through her head at close range. We 
were quite anxious to capture the little fellow alive, 
but found it difficult to kill the mother without 
wounding him, as he clung to her poor wounded body 
with the most touching tenacity. It was heartrending 

to see him try to cover her body with his own little 

18 



274 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

form, and lick her face and wounds, occasionally rising 
upon his hind legs and growling a fierce warning to his 
enemies. At this juncture Lieutenant Schwatka got 
out upon the ice, and, after several ineffectual at- 
tempts, at last succeeded in throwing a rope over the 
head of the cub, which put him in a towering pas- 
sion. Nevertheless he was towed alongside the ship 
and hoisted on deck, together with the carcass of his 
mother, but he never ceased to growl and rush at every 
one who approached him. We would gladly have 
brought him alive to the United States, for he was a 
handsome little rascal, but the vessel was small and 
devoid of conveniences for that purpose ; so the captain 
ordered him killed, and his fate was, consequently, 
sealed with a bullet from Mr. Williams's pistol. 

We met the whaler Isabella in Fisher's Strait, and 
the Abbott Lawrence near Charles Island, and from 
both got some later news, but no letters from either. 
We learned from them that the Abby Bradford had 
gone in already, and must have passed us in Fisher's 
Strait the day before we met the Isabella, in a thick 
fog that prevailed. We were sorry not to have met 
the Abby Bradford also, for we felt pretty certain 
that she must have letters for us ; but it seemed 
scarcely worth while to go back in search of her. The 
Isabella and Abby Bradford had been in company for 
twenty-seven days from Resolution Island to Notting- 
ham Island, surrounded by ice all the time and nar- 
rowly escaping destruction. The Isabella was carried 
by the current right upon a large iceberg, which would 



HOMEWARD. 275 

most certainly have wrecked the vessel ; but, when just 
about to strike, the eddy swept them around and past 
the berg, though they had entirely lost control of the 
ship. They were both "nipped" by the ice several 
times, and on one of these occasions the Abby Brad- 
ford suffered such a severe strain that her timbers 
creaked and groaned terribly, and her deck planks 
were bowed up. So imminent did their peril appear 
that the boats and provisions were got out upon the 
ice preparatory to abandoning the vessel, when, just as 
it seemed as if she must succumb, the pressure was 
relaxed and the crew returned to their ship. We had 
head winds before reaching Resolution Island, but 
after passing Cape Best the winds were fair, and we 
made a fine run of six days to the latitude of St. 
John, N. F. We saw a brig off: Hamilton Inlet, evi- 
dently trying to beat into that harbor ; but saw no 
more vessels until the 2d of September, when we saw 
a heavily laden bark some distance ahead of us making 
toward the west. We changed our course so as to 
endeavor to head her off, but though we gained upon 
her considerably, could not overtake her before dark. 
On the 3d we saw a number of vessels, including one 
steamer, all, except one large merchantman, bound 
eastward. 

A little humpback whale that came playing around 
our ship, as if trying to get a harpoon in him, pre- 
vented our heading off the steamer and getting some 
late papers. But as soon as a boat was lowered into 
the water the fishy representative of King Richard 



276 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

thought it began to look too much like business at this 
time, and hastened off to look for his mother. We 
saw quite a large school of humpbacks during the same 
afternoon, but there was too much wind, with the near 
prospect of a gale, to render it worth while to hunt 
them. We had some pretty heavy blows on our way 
home, and on the last day of August we were struck 
by a squall that gave us a very good idea of what a 
gale would be like should it have continued for a day 
or two ; but within twenty minutes of the time it struck 
us it had passed off, the sun was shining brightly, and 
we were making sail again, with nothing to indicate 
what had just taken place save a few barrels of im- 
mense hailstones that still covered the deck like so 
much coarse salt and a chilliness in the atmosphere that 
made you shiver in spite of yourself. It was fearful, 
though, while it lasted ; the lightning and thunder 
crashes were almost synchronous, indicating a most 
unpleasant proximity. Since the night of the 2d of 
September we had been cut off by southwest winds 
and enveloped with fogs of varying density. Every- 
thing on deck was as wet as if a heavy rain-storm had 
just passed over, and great drops of water kept drop- 
ping from the sails aud rigging, making it very un- 
pleasant to venture beyond the cabin. 

During the morning of the 7th the fog lifted a little 
and showed us three fishing-smacks anchored about 
a mile away, and we directed our course toward them, 
with the hope of getting some fresh fish as well as 
some fresh news. Mr. Gilbert, second officer of the 



HOMEWARD. 277 

George and Mary, took me in bis boat on board the 
schooner Gertrude, of Provincetown, Mass., whose mas- 
ter, Captain John Dillon, extended a hearty welcome. 
In answer to our first question he told us who were the 
Presidential candidates. Captain Dillon prevailed upon 
me to recount some of the incidents of our sledge jour- 
ney. He seemed very much interested in the recital, 
brief as it necessarily was, and hospitably pressed us to 
dine with him, as it was. just about his dinner hour. 
Desiring to impress upon his steward the importance of 
his guests he said : — " Steward, it is a great treat to see 
these gentlemen. You ought to take a good look at 
them. They have had one of the toughest times you ever 
heard of. They have just come down from — where ? " 
(aside to me). " King William's Land," said I, scarcely 
able to retain my composure. " King William's Land," 
he repeated, " and were looking for Franklin." The 
doubt in his mind as to who this mythical "Frank- 
lin " was seeming to add much to the interest that in- 
vested us. 

We had a substantial meal of fried haddock, which 
was particularly enjoyable, in the absence of fresh meat 
on board our ship since the reindeer meat was ex- 
hausted. In the laudable pursuit of information I felt 
interested in seeing how they lived on board these fish- 
ing schooners, and had accepted the kind invitation to 
dinner as much on that account as for the sake of the 
fresh fish I anticipated. I saw that the cabin was too 
small to accommodate a dining-table, but had four very 
wide bunks in it, one of which was the captain's, and 



278 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

the others occupied by two men each. There is not 
the same amount of discipline on board these vessels, 
which are out for so short a time, as upon merchant- 
men or whalers, and all hands eat at the same table. 
We found the feast spread in the forecastle, which was 
also used as the galley, and was consequently oppres- 
sively warm to us from the north, in this thick, sultry 
weather. On each side of the forecastle I observed 
three large bunks, each of which accommodated at 
least two men. This was their second voyage this 
summer, they having been fortunate enough to fill up 
before their first three months had expired. The crews 
are usually shipped for three months, and receive about 
$50 compensation for the voyage. If they get full 
before the time is up, that is their gain. Sometimes, 
however, they have an interest in the voyage the same 
as whalers, but usually, I understand, are paid from $40 
to $75 for a season, which means three months unless 
sooner filled. The men do not fish from the deck of 
the vessel, but from little flat-bottomed dories, each 
man paddling his own boat and changing its location to 
suit his whim. When brought on board the vessel the 
fish are immediately cleaned, split open and salted 
right down in the hold, without the formality of put- 
ting them in barrels or casks. After they are landed 
on shore they are dried and assorted according to size 
and sold by the quintal of 112 pounds, though 100 
pounds is estimated as a quintal from the hold of the 
smack. The Gertrude had already 175 quintals on her 
second cargo the day we were on board, but the cap- 



HOMEWARD. 279 

tain seemed much more desirous of hearing of our 
strange adventures than of imparting the information 
that I sought. He appeared much impressed with the 
circumstance that we were " worth looking at," as he 
said, and dwelt much upon the fact that this summer 
was a good season for him to see strange things. 

" On my first voyage this summer," said he, " that 
little dory, thirteen and a half feet long, in which two 
young men are going around the world, came alongside 
my vessel, and I gave them some water and lucky cake, 
and now I meet you gentlemen from — where ?" (ad- 
dressing me). " King William's Land," said I. " Oh, 
yes ; King William's Land. Let me have some fish 
put into your boat before you go." And the kind- 
hearted fisherman gave us about a barrel of fine fresh 
cod and haddock, besides a fifty-fathom line and some 
hooks. He also gave us three late newspapers ; and we 
sent him in return a copy of Hall's " Life Among the 
Esquimaux," and some other reading matter, besides a 
pair of sealskin slippers, and a fine walrus skull with 
the ivory tusks in it. This was a present from Mr- 
Gilbert. Just as we were about leaving I turned to 
Mr. Gilbert and said, " The Governor will be glad to 
hear the news." 

" What ! " said the surprised skipper, " have you got 
a real Governor on board ? " And then I had to ex- 
plain that it was merely a title we had bestowed upon 
Lieutenant Schwatka in view of the faithful care he 
took of his people, though, I believe, the youngest in 
the party. The incident was only amusing as showing 



280 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

that the captain had heard so many strange things 
this morning that he was prepared to believe anything, 
no matter how absurd it might appear. 

The day following our visit to the fishing schooner 
was still foggy and without a breath of wind stirring. 
We therefore availed ourselves of the opportunity to 
use our fish-lines, and succeeded in securing about fifty 
fine cod and haddock, besides one huge dogfish, which 
snapped ferociously when hauled into the boat, and 
had to be despatched with a boat-hook. We expe- 
rienced considerable squally weather about the middle 
of September, interspersed with head winds and calms. 
On the 15th there were several vessels in sight, and a 
large iron bark came so near that we concluded to send 
aboard for newspapers. The waist boat was cleared 
away and the second mate started to intercept the 
stranger, but scarcely had the boat been lowered into 
the water when a squall came up and the sea became 
very rugged, so that in passing to the leeward of the 
bark, though he shouted out that it was only papers 
that he wanted, the captain did not hear him, and 
luffed up into the wind to deaden his headway. But 
even then the bark drifted ahead so rapidly that it was 
hard work for our boat to catch it by rowing in such 
a heavy sea. The stranger then lowered his top-gal- 
lant sails and hauled his foreyards aback, and in about 
twenty-five minutes Mr. Gilbert was alongside. He 
sprang lightly up the side of the big vessel, and, stand- 
ing before the captain, with all the characteristic 
politeness of the French people, presented Captain 



HOMEWARD. 281 

Baker's compliments and asked for some late papers. 
The captain of the bark was a splendid old Scotchman 
who had grown gray battling with stormy seas for 
many years. 

But when he found out that all we wanted was 
newspapers, he was so completely overpowered with 
surprise that all he could say was, " Well — I'll — be — 
blanked." This he kept repeating all the way to his 
cabin as he went to gather some late copies of the New 
York Herald. When he again came upon deck he had 
recovered his accustomed composure, and asked where 
we were from and where bound. He said his vessel 
was the bark Selkirkshire, of Glasgow, from New York 
the night of the 12th inst., and then turning again to 
Mr. Gilbert said, " And is that all you wanted ? And 
a fair wind? Why, man, you'll be home to-night. 
Well — I'll — be — blanked." Never before in all his- 
experience had he known a vessel within two or three 
days' sail of home, with a fair wind, take so much 
trouble to stop another merely for the purpose of get- 
ting some newspapers. It was rather " a stunner," that 
is a fact, but at the same time was unintentional. The 
squall came up after our boat was lowered and pre- 
vented Mr. Gilbert doing what he had intended, which 
was merely to go alongside, get a few papers thrown 
overboard and drop back, without causing more than 
fiVe minutes' detention, if any. But the wind pre- 
vented their hearing him, when he shouted to them 
that he only wanted papers, and for them to go ahead, 
as they missed getting close enough when they passed ; 



282 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

so when he saw thera taking so much trouble to stop 
he felt it his duty to pull up and explain on board. 
Captain Anderson, of the Selkirkshire, recovered his 
equanimity sufficiently to send his best respects to 
Captain Baker, with the very welcome papers — fresh 
for us, as there were some as late as the Herald of the 
Saturday previous. I have no doubt, though, that 
every time he recalls the episode on his voyage to Eng- 
land he will say to himself, "Well, I'll be " 

Saturday, the 18th, we were becalmed on the 
George's Bank, about a quarter of a mile from another 
large bark, bound the same way as we were ; and as it 
is so excessively monotonous at sea, especially in a calm, 
and knowing that we could not be causing any delay 
this time, we lowered a boat, and Captain Baker, Lieu- 
tenant Schwatka and I paid a visit to Captain Kelly, 
of the bark Thomas Cochrane, of St. John, N. B., fifty- 
seven days from Gloucester, England, bound for New 
York. We found Captain Kelly a genial, whole-souled 
sailor, who received us very cordially, and three hours 
slipped away most pleasantly in his society. He had 
his family on board, and said he would have been ex- 
ceedingly comfortable had he not run short of pro- 
visions in such an exceptionally long voyage between 
the two ports. On the Banks of Newfoundland he 
had encountered a Norwegian bark loaded with grain, 
to which he sent a boat with an explanation of his 
necessities. The captain returned word that he was 
short himself, but sent a bag of wheat, which he re- 
marked would sustain their lives for some time. Cap- 



HOMEWARD. 283 

tain Kelly received the wheat graciously, and the next 
day met an old friend, who sent him stores sufficient to 
carry him home. Captain Baker told him he could 
supply him with ship's stores if he desired it, but he 
said he was all right now and did not require further 
assistance. 

Tuesday noon, "Land, ho!" was shouted from the 
masthead, and soon the low, white shore of Nantucket 
was plainly visible. A strong head wind kept us out 
until Wednesday morning, when we took on board a 
pilot, and before night were ashore in New Bedford. 
During the entire trip Captain Baker had done every- 
thing in his power to promote the comfort of his pas- 
sengers, and earned for himseK their lasting gratitude. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE GRAVES OF THE EXPLOEEES. 

I will briefly bring this record to a conclusion. 
The map that accompanies it will give the reader an 
opportunity to more clearly understand the nature of 
the search conducted by Lieutenant Schwatka over the 
route of the retreating crews of the Erebus and Terror, 
and by it he can also trace the sledge journey to and 
from King William Land as well as the preliminary 
sledge journeys in the winter of 1878 and 1879. The 
location of each spot where skeletons of the brave fel- 
lows were found is marked, and everywhere cenotaphs 
were erected to their memory. Pwing to the length of 
time that has elapsed since this sad event, it was not 
always possible to tell the exact number of individuals 
represented in a pile of bones that we would gather 
sometimes from an area of nearly a half mile. The 
skeletons were always incomplete. Sometimes nothing 
but a skull could be found in the vicinity of a grave, 
and, again, often the skull would be missing. At one 
place we could distinguish four right femurs, and could 
therefore be positive that at least four perished here. 
This was at the boat place marked on Erebus Bay. 

A number of natives whom we interviewed in the 

284 



286 SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 

their strength to such a degree as to be the cause of 
neglect. In fact, there were no evidences anywhere 
that they had ever neglected showing marked respect 
to the remains of those of their comrades who perished 
by their side ; but, on the contrary, it is probable that all 
who died on the march were decently interred. A very 
significant fact in this connection is recognizable in the 
appearance of a grave which had been opened by the 
Esquimaux near Tallock Point. It was made of small 
stones, while larger and more appropriate abounded in 
the vicinity, showing the reduced physical condition of 
the party at the time. It was, indeed, a most touch- - 
ing indication of their devotion to each other under 
these most adverse circumstances that the grave had 
been made at all. The graves east of this point pre- 
sented the same general appearance. This might be 
considered as an evidence that the boat in Erebus Bay 
had drifted in after the breaking up of the ice there, 
while these poor fellows were on their way back to the 
ships in search of food now known to have been there. 
It is not likely that the sick or dead would have been 
deserted by their comrades unless in the direst ex- 
tremity. 

The point marked as the location of the hospital tent 
is the place spoken of by Ahlangyah, where so many 
dead bodies were seen by her party after they had 
spent the summer on King William's Land in conse- 
quence of failing to get across Simpson Strait before 
the ice broke up. Where she met the starving ex- 
plorers is also indicated. On the mainland the place 



THE GRAVES OF THE EXPLORERS. 287 

is marked where the old Ookjoolik Esquimau saw the 
footprints of the last survivors of the Erebus and Ter- 
ror in the spring snows of the year 1849. Also, Dear 
by is where he and his friends unwittingly scuttled the 
Northwest Passage ship — the Dangerous Rapids, near 
the mouth of Back's River, the home of the Ooquee- 
siksillik Esquimaux, and the spot where we loaded our 
sleds with provisions on our way home. The route 
down Back's River, as we found its course, is put 
down, while dotted lines show how it is mapped on the 
Admiralty charts. It is not discreditable to Back's 
survey that an error should be made in tracing the 
course of the river, for it is probable that bad weather 
hid the sun from his observation at that portion of the 
river where he could travel very swiftly ; while upon 
our return trip we were moving along this river by 
stages of not more than from five to nine miles a day. 
Our course up the river could not have been toward 
the southwest when we saw the sun rise to the right 
of our line of march almost daily. The place where 
the records were destroyed may be seen to the west 
of Point Richardson. 

Among the most important relics of the expedition 
are two medals. The larger one, found at Lieutenant 
Irving's grave, is of solid silver ; and the neat, cleanly 
cut edges, which are as sharp to-day as if just from the 
die, indicate the value placed upon it and the care 
taken of it by its owner. It was buried with his re- 
mains at a spot about four miles below Victory Point, 
on King William's Land, and evidently remained un- 



288 



SCHWATKA'S SEARCH. 



disturbed until the grave was found by Esquimaux who 
visited the vicinity some time after McClintock's search, 
more than twenty years ago. From its position when 
found by Lieutenant Schwatka it would appear that it 
had been taken out of the grave by the natives and laid 
upon one of the stones forming the wall of the tomb 
while they were seeking for further plunder, and was 
subsequently overlooked by them. The remains which 
were thus identified were sent to grateful relations in 
Scotland, and buried with due honor in a graveyard of 
Lieutenant Irving's native town. 

The other medal, which was found at Starvation 
Cove, is of pewter, and may be described as a token 
commemorative of the launch of the steamship Great 
Britain, by Prince Albert, in July, 1843. The obverse 
bears a portrait of His Eoyal Highness, around it 
inscribed the words : — 



Prince Albert, Born August 26, 1819. 



The inscription on the reverse reads as follows :- 



The Great Britain. 

Length 322 ft ; Breadth 50 ft. G in. 

Depth, 32 ft. 6 in. 

Weight of Iron, 1,500 tons. 

1,000 Horse Power. 

Launched, July 19, 

1843, 

by H. R. H. Prince Albert. 



■*• 



The vessel was built entirely of iron, and was the 



THE GRAVES OF THE EXPLORERS. 289 

largest ever constructed at the time of the launch. On 
that occasion a great banquet was given, and one of the 
guests carried away the medal, which was destined to 
be found so many thousand miles away. 

Lieutenant Irving' s remains were the only ones that 
could be sufficiently identified to warrant their removal. 
Had there been others we would have brought them 
away. 

It was a beautiful though saddening spectacle that 
met our eyes at the only grave upon King William's 
Land, where the dead had been buried beneath the sur- 
face of the ground. Near Point le Vesconte some 
scattered human bones led to the discovery of the 
tomb of an officer who had received most careful sepul- 
ture at the hands of his surviving friends. A little 
hillock of sand and gravel — a most rare occurrence 
upon that forbidding island of clay-stones — afforded 
an opportunity for Christian-like interment. The dirt 
had been neatly rounded up, as could be plainly seen, 
though it had been torn open and robbed by the sacri- 
legious hands of the savages ; and everywhere, amid the 
debris and mould of the grave, the little wild ilowers 
were thickly spread as if to hide the desecration of 
unfriendly hands. The fine texture of the cloth and 
linen and several gilt buttons showed the deceased to 
have been an officer, but there was nothing to be seen 
anywhere that would identify the remains to a stranger.. 
Every stone that marked the outline of the tomb was 
closely scrutinized for a name or initials, but nothing- 
was found. After reinterring the remains, which were 
19 



290 SCH WA TEA'S SEA R OH. 

gathered together from an area of a quarter of a mile, 
and erecting a monument, Lieutenant Schwatka 
plucked a handful of flowers, which he made into 
a little bouquet, and brought home with him as a 
memento. 



INDEX. 



A. 



Abbott Lawrence, The, 274. 
Adelaide, Peninsula, 30. 72, 77. 
Adlekok, 103. 
Admiralty, British, 266. 
Agloocar, 91, 108. 
Ahlano-vah, 89, 93, 108, 161, 

286." 
Akkolear, 174, 181, 258, 269. 
"Albert. Prince," 13, 288. 
Albert H. P. H. Prince, 288. 
America, United States of, 5. 
American Geographical Society, 

5, 16. 
Amitigoke, 181. 
Anderson, Captain, 282. 
Anookjook, 190. 
" Ansel Gibbs, The." 
Armow, 14, 17, 229, 230, 231, 

253, 263, 265. 
Arctic, 62, 94, 95, 98, 100, 102, 

116, 120, 126, 161, 169, 176, 

208, 231, 238, 240, 241, 248, 

266, 269. 
Asia, Northern-Eastern, 47. 



B. 



Back's River, 68, 72, 78, 79, 80, 

128, 131, 198, 203, 212, 23 5, 

219, 220, 287. 
Back's Great 'Fish River, 181. 
Back, Lieut., 270, 273, 287. 
Baker, Captain, 236, 265, 267, 

268, 270, 271, 272, 280, 282, 

283. 
Banks of Newfoundland, 282. 



Barry. Capt. Thos. F., 2, 3, 5, 
9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 29, 30, 
31, 34, 38, 39, 229, 230. 

Barry's Rock, 13. 

Bay, Baffin's, 248. 

Bay, Cockburn, 68, 208, 210. 

Baffin's Bay, 248. 

Bay, Chesapeake, 122. 

Bay, Daly, 186, 273. 

Bay, Erebus, 94, 109, 114, 119, 
130, 131, 152, 153, 160, 161, 
284, 285, 286. 

Bay, Hudson, 80, 83, 86, 121, 
174, 175, 181, 212, 226, 233, 
252, 266, 268, 271, 272. 

Bay, Irving, 131, 151, 161. 

Bay, North, 174, 268, 269, 271. 

Bay, Pelly, 106. 

Bay, Repulse, 90, 169, 181, 189, 
207. 

Bay, Shepherds, 285. 

Bay, Terror, 92, 160, 197, 198. 

Bay, Wall, 131, 147, 162. 

Bay, Washington, 89, 90, 131, 
114. 

Bay, Wilmot, 85, 198, 200, 207. 

Beechy Island, 127. 

Bellot Strait, 127. 

Best. Cape. 275. 

Big Lake, The, 46. 

Blucher, 185, 188. 

Boothia, Gulf of, 5. 

Boothia, Isthmus, 202. 

"Bradford, The Abbie," 30, 35, 
274, 275. 

Bristol, 148. 

Brevoort, Lake, 46. 

Brevoort, Jas. Carson, 46. 

British Admiralty, 127. 



292 



INDEX. 



Brooklyn, 46. 

Brown, Morrison &, 4. 

Button, Island, 9. 

C. 

Camp Daly, 16, 28, 53, 54, 56, 

57, 59, 69, 70, 230. 
Camp, Kinnepatoo, The, 237. 
Cape Best, 275. 
Cape Crozier, 161. 
Cape Felix, 85, 110, 113, 114, 

126, 128, 131, 132, 133, 136, 

147, 149, 161, 162, 285. 
Cape Fullerton, 13, 273. 
Cape Herschel, 113, 114, 132, 

162, 197, 198. 
Cape Jane Franklin, 85, 114, 

124, 130. 
Cape Maria Louisa, 147. 
Cape Sidney, 133, 134. 
Channel, Fox. 182, 271. 
Channel, Wellington, 127. 
Charles Island, 274. 
Chesapeake Bay, 122. 
Castor & Pollux, river, 68. 
Chesterfield Inlet, 13, 181, 189, 

207, 255, 223. 
"Cockeye," 233. 
Cockburn Bay, 68, 208, 210. 
Collmson Inlet, 110, 113, 114, 

122, 124, 149, 285. 
Connery River, 57. 60. 226. 
Connery, Thomas B., 24. 
Constantinus, Captain, 250. 
Conwe-churgk, 230. 
Conweehungh, 253. 
Cornwallis Island, 127. 
Coston, 62. 
Cove, Starvation, 164, 202, 210, 

240, 288. 
Cove, Thunder, 164. 
" Cow-e-sil-lik, Fish," 211. 
Craycroft, Miss, 38. 
Crozier, Capt. F. M., 40, 124, 

126, 128, 131. 
Crozier McClintock, 151. 
"Crozier Record," The, 127. 

130. 



Crozier, Cape, 161. 
Cumberland, 39. 
Cumberland Sound, 174, 266. 



D. 



Dalv Bay, 186, 273. 

Dalv, Camp, 16, 28, 40, 43, 54, 
56, 57, 59, 71, 96, 230. 

Daly, Judge. C. P., 4, 5. 

Daly, Mrs. Maria, 5. 

Dangerous Rapids, The, 198, 
199, 208, 209, 210, 287. 

Deadmen's Island, 37. 

Dease and Simpson, 40. 

Depot Island, 13, 14, 15, 17, 23, 
27, 31, 47, 184, 188,190, 215, 
217, 218, 225, 226, 229, 230, 
232, 238, 247, 248, 252, 254, 
263, 269, 273. 

Des V , Chas. F., 127. 

Diggers. The, 13. 

Dillon, John, Captain, 277. 

"Doctor, The," 14. 

Doktook (Doctor), 91, 109. 

"Domino" 34, 35. 

Duryea, Gen'l Hiram, 46. 

E. 

Ebierbing, Joseph, 184. 

(See "Escprimau Joe"). 
Eclipse Sound, 248. 
Eeglee-leock, 230, 233. 
Ekeeseek, 30. 
England, 2, 12, 266, 282. 
Ephemeris, 109. 
Equeesik, 58, 67, 72, 74, 77, 80, 

84, 113, 163, 188, 196, 217, 

220, 224, 225, 247. 
Eothen, The, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 

17, 31, 35, 230. 
Erebus, The, 72, 78, 109, 114, 

127, 128, 134, 239, 274, 287. 
Erebus Bav, 94, 109, 114, 119, 

130, 131, 152, 155, 160, 161, 

284, 285, 286. 
, Eve-too, 230. 
1 Eyertoo, 253. 



INDEX. 



293 



Esquimau Joe, 2, 5, 10, 11, 14, 
17, 18, 20, 24, 77, 241, 266. 

Esquimau Sampson, 188. 

Expedition, Franklin, 29, 40, 
240. 



P. 



Felix, Cape, 85, 110, 113, 114, 

126, 128, 131, 132, 133, 136, 
147, 149, 161, 162, 285. 

Fisher, Captain, 35, 36, 230. 

Fisher's Straits, 274. 

Fitz- James, James, Captain, 128. 

Fletcher, The, 1. 

Fox Channel, 182, 271. 

"Fox," The (seeMelms), 127. 

Frank, 124, 133, 134, 147, 149, 

157, 160, 163, 192, 235. 
Franklin, Jane, Cape, 85. 114, 

124, 130. 
Franklin, Lady, 127. 
Franklin, 77, 84, 99, 104, 106, 

131, 135, 273, 277. 
Franklin, Expedition, 29, 40, 

240. 
Franklin, Sir John, 3, 5, 16, 38, 

127, 128, 136. 

Franklin Point, 119, 120, 122, 

151, 285. 
"Franklin Records," The, 240. 
Franklin, Relics, 15. 
Franklin, Spoon, 38. 
Franklin, Arctic Search Party, 5. 
Franklin, Stoves, 160. 
Fnllerton. Cape, 13, 38, 273. 



(}. 



Garvin, Capt., 35, 
Geographical Society, 4, 5, t. 
"George and Mary," The, 132, 

236, 266, 269, 277. 
George's Bank, 282. 
"Gertrude," The, 277, 278. 
Gilbert, Mr., 237, 238, 276, 279, 

280, 281. 
Gilder, W. H., 58. 
"Gibbs, The Ansel," 37. 



"Glacier," The, 3, 38. 
Glacier, Grinnell, 271. 
Glasgow, 281. 
Gloucester, 282. 
Gladman Point, 91, 160, 192. 
Glen Cove, 47. 
Goldner's Patent, 148. 
Gore, Graham, 127. 
Gore, Commander, 128. 
Grant Point, 78, 85, 130, 198. 
Great Fish River, 128. 
"Great Britain," The, 288. 
Great Britain, 164. 
Greenhithe, Kent, 126. 
Greenland, Dogs, 47. 
Greenwich, 16. 
Grinnell Glacier, 271. 



H. 



Hall, Captain C. F., 2, 14, 18, 

40, 104, 106, 136, 271, 279, 

285. 
Hamilton Inlet, 275. 
Harris's River, 78. 
Hayes, R. B., 68. 
Hayes River, 68, 80, 181. 
Hayes, Dr. I. I., 115. 
Hayes, Captain, 2. 
Hazard Hills, 60. 
Henry (see Klutschak), 124, 133, 

149, 153, 160, 164, 192, 195, 

198, 208, 209, 210, 235. 
Herald, The New York, 281, 

282. 
Herschel, Cape, 40, 113, 114, 

132, 162, 197, 198. 
Hills, Hazard, 60. 
Hobson, William R., Lieut., 127, 

128, 129. 
"Houghton, The A," 4, 17. 
Hudson's Bay, 38, 41, 47, 57, 80, 

83, 86, 121, 174, 175, 181, 212, 

226, 233, 266, 268, 271, 272. 
Hudson Bay, North, 57, 252. 
Hudson Bay Company, 261. 
Hudson Strait, 174, 175, 182, 

254, 268, 269, 270, 271. 



294 



INDEX. 



Igloolik, 181, 253, 256. 

Ikianelikpatolok, 78. 

Ik-omer, 14, 235, 253. 

"Independence Day," 133. 

Inlet, Chesterfield, *13, 181, 189, 
207, 215, 233. 

Inlet, Collinson, 110, 113, 114, 
122, 124, 149, 285. 

Inlet Hamilton, 275. 

Inlet Sherman, 199. 

Innokpizookzook, 80. 

Institute, Smithsonian, 120. 

limit, 85, 90, 109, 116, 119, 
137, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 
188, 190, 191, 215, 225, 230, 
233, 241, 242, 247, 253, 254, 
264, 267, 268, 269. 

Inuits, 17, 22, 24, 30, 34, 51, 
53, 60, 65, 71, 73, 74. 90, 91, 
92,94,103, 106,107, 113, 122, 
136, 149, 154, 160, 163, 164, 
187, 189, 195, 197, 203, 216, 
232, 237, 265, 268, 271. 

limit Camp, The, 207. 

Invich River, 23. 

Irving, Lieutenant John, 113, 
125, 128, 130, 131, 151, 285, 
287, 288, 289. 

Irving Bay, 131, 151, 161. 

"Isabella," The, 35, 274. 

Ishnark, 57, 58, 73, 74, 195, 
199, 218, 263. 

Ishnach, 77. 

" Ish-n-mat-tah," The, 242. 

Island, Beechy, 127. 

Island, Charles, 274. 

Island, Cornwallis, 127. 

Island, Depot, 184, 188, 190, 
215, 217, 218, 225, 226, 229, 
230, 232, 238, 247, 248, 252, 
254, 263, 267, 273. 

Island, Marble, 96, 132, 178, 
226, 230, 233, 235, 236, 238, 
266, 267, 271, 273. 

Island, Matty, 91. 

Island, Montreal, SO, 83. 

Island, Nottingham, 274. 



Island, Resolution, 271, 274, 

275. 
Island, Southampton, 182, 273. 
Islands, Todd, 93. 
Issebluet, 200. 
Isthmus, Boothia, 202. 
Iteguark, 252, 253. 
Iwillie, 13, 17. 
Iwillik, Esquimaux, 29, 30, 169, 

181, 246, 251, 252. 
Iwillichs, 46. 
"Iviek Seleko," 235. 



"Jerry," 18, 263. 

"Jim," 14. 

"Joe, Esquimau," {see Ebier- 
bing), 2, 5, 10, 11, 14, 17, 
18, 20, 24, 57, 58, 59, 73, 
78, 84, 113, 164, 184, 185, 
186, 195, 196, 197, 198, 201, 
208, 209, 211, 218, 245, 246. 

" Joe," Natchilli, 17, 29. 

K. 

Karleko, 59. 

Kelly, Captain, 282, 283. 

Kendall, Cape, 36. 

Kig-muk-too, 199, 202. 

Kigynektower, 269. 

Kigynektuk, 269. 

Kiocldelliks, 175. 

King William Land, 5, 14, 15, 
18, 23, 29, 30, 40, 54, 59, 60, 
67, 72, 77, 85, 91, 92, 93, 94, 
105, 110, 125, 130, 132, 133, 
134, 149, 151, 188, 192, 195, 
239, 256, 269, 277, 278, 284, 
286, 287, 289. 

Kinnepatoos, 26, 41, 42, 46, 
178, 181, 215, 225, 237, 246, 
251, 254, 272, 

Kinnepatoo Camp, The, 237. 

Kinnepatoo Village, 46, 237. 

Klutschak, Henry {see "Hen- 
ry"), 2, 31, 34, 38, 58. 

Kodlunars, 18. 

Koomana, 58. 



INDEX. 



295 



Koo-pah, 230. 
Koumania, 18, 19, 20, 29. 
Koumawa's, 209, 210. 
Kutcheenwark, 58. 
Kyack (Mrs.), 253. 

L. 

Lake McDougal, 215. 

Lathe, Charles A., 237,238. 
" Lawrence, The Abbott," 35. 
Le Vesconte, Point, 151, 289. 
Little, Point, 157, 160. 
Little Rabbit Island, 31, 33. 
Lorillard, 60. 
Lorillard River, 60. 
Lower Savage Island, 10. 
Lower Savage Islands, 14. 
Lyon, 270. 

M. 

" Mn - mnk-poo-ama-snet-suk-o " 

(plenty good to see), 229. 
Maria Louisa, Cape, 147. 
Marble Island, 4, 30, 31, 32, 37, 

38, 41, 46, 47, 96, 132, 178. 

226, 230, 233, 235, 236, 238, 

266, 267, 271, 273. 
Massachusetts, 237. 
Matty Island, 91. 
May, H., 104. 
McClintock-Crozier, 151. 
McClintock, Sir Leopold, 3, 40, 

53, 94, 127, 129, 157, 285. 288. 
McDougall, Lake, 215. 
Mitcolelee, 163. 
Meadowbank, Mount, 216. 
Melms, Frank E. (see " Prank"), 

2, 19, 58. 
Melville Sound, 156. 
Melville Peninsula, 181, 207. 
Meta Incognita, 269, 271. 
Middle Savage Island, 10. 
Mit-colelee, 58. 
" Molasses," 21, 27. 
"Monkey," 29. 
Montreal Island, 83. 
Morrison & Brown, 4. 
Mount Meadowbank, 216. 
Mozier, Captain, 35. 



N. 

Nanook, 188, 230, 233. 

Nantucket, 283. 

Narleyow, 80, 198, 208, 210, 215,, 

218. 
Neepshark, 58. 
Netchillik, 15, 17, 29. 58, 83, 85 r 

89, 93,106,110,148, 181, 199,. 

200, 246, 247,256, 257, 285. 
Netchilliks, 73, 74, 77, 78, 109,. 

164, 199, 240. 
Netchillik, Arn-ket-ko, The, 198. 
Netchillik Joe, 17, 29. 
Netchillik Women, 251. 
Netchuk, 28, 254. 
New Bedford, 35, 36, 237, 283. 
Newfoundland, Banks ,of, 282. 
New Jersey, 150. 
New York, 2, 4, 5, 6, 13, 24, 40 r 

44, 121, 281, 282. 
North America, 145. 
North Bay, 174, 268, 269, 271. 
North Bluff, 268, 269. 
North Hudson Bay, 51, 181. 
North-eastern Asia, 47. 
North-west Passage, 287. 
Nottingham Island, 13, 274. 
Nu-lee-aug-ar, 252. 
Nu-oo-tar-ro, 83. 
Nu-tar-ge-ark, 29, 30, 40. 

O. 

Ockarnawole, 110. 
Ogzenckjenwock, 105, 106, 108, 

110, 198. 
Okbillegeok, 106. 
Ookjoolik, 77, 78, 85, 130, 181, 

246, 251, 256, 257, 287. 
Ookwolik Esquimaux, 199. 
Ooquee-sik-sillicks, 72, 83, 181, 

198, 199, 209, 210, 251, 287. 
Oopino-, 85. 

Owanork, 58, 113, 148-, 188. 
Oxeomadiddlee, 187, 188, 252, 

253. 
Oyle Point, 83. 
O-yook, 191. 



296 



INDEX. 



"PapV 14, 170, 233, 234, 235, 

263. 
"Pandora," The, 2. 
Parry, Captain, 270. 
Pevwat, 79, 83. 
Petrilark, 230. 
Petty Bay, 106. 
Picc'iulok, 27. 
Peninsula, Adelaide, 72, 77, 78, 

79, 85, 90, 104, 181, 239. 
Peninsula, Melville, 207. 
Pfeffer River, 93, 103, 136. 
Point, Franklin, 119, 120, 122, 

151, 285. 
Point, Grant, 78, 85, 130, 198. 
Point, Gladman, 91, 160, 192, 
Point Le Vesconte, 151, 289. 
Point Little, 157, 160. 
Point, Oyle, 83. 
Point Richardson, 83, 89, 106, 

198, 202, 287. 
Point, Seaforth, 94. 
Point, Smith, 198. 
Point, Tulloch, 256. 286. 
Point Whale, 13, 189, 273. 
Point, Victory, 110, 113, 149, 

287. 
Potter, Captain, 30, 38. 
Pooyetah, 105, 106. 
"Prince Albert," 13. 
Prince Albert, H. R. H., 288. 
Provincetown, Mass., 277. 
Punnie, 253, 254. 



Q. 

Queennah, 269. 
Queen Elizabeth, 



269. 



R. 

Rabbit Island, Little, 31, 33, 47. 
Rapids, Dangerous, 'The, 198, 

199, 208, 209, 210, 287. 
Rae, Dr., his expedition, 240. 
"Record, Crozier, The," 127, 

130. 
Reef, Trainor's, 13. 



Repulse Bay, 3, 5, 90, 169, 181, 

189, 207. 
Resolution Island, 8, 9, 10, 271, 

274, 275. 
Richardson Point, 83, 89, 106, 

198, 202, 287. 
Richardson, 273. 
River, Back's, 68, 72, 78, 79, 80, 

128, 131, 198, 203, 212, 215, 

219, 220, 287. 
River, Back's Great Fish, 181. 
River, Castor & Pollux, 68. 
River, Connery, 226. 
River, Great Fish, 128. 
River, Harris's, 78. 
River, Hayes's, 68, 80, 181. 
River, Lorrillard, 60. 
River, Pfeffer, 93, 103, 136. 
River, Wager, 63, 67, 207, 231, 

238. 
Rock, Barry's, 13. 
"Ross, The A. J.," 36, 37. 
Ross, Sir James, 106, 114, 128. 
Rowe's Welcome, 18, 36, 273. 
Roxy, 26. 

S. 

Saddle Rock Island, 10. 

Salisbury Islands, 13. 

"Sam," 20, 21, t2, 25, 26, 27, 
28. 

Schwatka, Lieut. Fred'k, 1, 2, 
4, 5. 16, 38, 40, 46, 53, 54, 
57, 58, 60, 66, 67, 68, 84, 85, 
96, 98, 103, 113, 119, 120, 
121, 124, 132, 133, 134, 147, 
149, 154, 157, 158, 160, 161, 
162, 164, 178, 179, 195, 202, 
203, 207, 216, 217, 229, 233, 
235, 240, 241, 245, 264, 265, 
266, 273, 274, 279, 282, 284, 
288, 290. 

Scotland, 288. 

Seaforth Point, 94. 

Sebeucktolee, 184, 230, 253, 254. 

Seenteetuar, 84, 86. 

Sekoselar, 181. 

" Selkirshire," The, 281, 282. 

Shepherd's Bay, 285. 



INDEX. 



297 



Sherman, General, 4. 
Sherman Inlet, 199. 
Shok-pe-nark, 230, 254. 
Sidney, Cape, 133, 134. 
Simpson, Dease and Strait, 40, 

85, 93, 192, 286. 
Sinclair, Capt., 36, 37. 
Sinuksook, 30, 38. 
Swansea, 237. 
Smithsonian Institute, 120. 
Smith Point, 198. 
Smith Sound, 115. 
Sound, Cumberland, 174, 266. 
Sound, Eclipse, 248. 
Sound, Melville, 156. 
Sound, Smith, 115. 
Southampton Island, 182, 273. 
South Street, 4. 
Spoon, Franklin, 38. 
Starvation Cove, 164, 202, 210, 

240, 288. 
St. John, N. B., 282. 
St. Johns, Newfoundland, 275. 
Strait, Bellot, 127. 
Strait, Hudson, 174, 175, 182, 

254, 268, 269, 270, 271. 
Strait, Simpson, 85, 93, 192, 286. 
Strait, Victoria, 104, 109, 120, 

131, 156. 
Straits, Fisher, 274. 

T. 

" Taylor, Alex.," 22, 23, 24, 25, 

26, 27, 28. 
Taft, The Gray, 37. 
Terror Bav, 92, 160, 167, 168. 
Terror, The, 72, 78, 109, 114, 

125, 126, 127, 128, 134, 200, 

239, 284, 287. 
Terre-ah-ne-ak, 230. 
Te-Wort, 233. 

" Thomas Cochrane, The," 282. 
Thunder Cove, 164. 
Tling-yack-cpiark, 64. 
Tockoleegeetais, 254. 
Todd Islands, 93. 
Toekelegeto, 71. 



Tooktnocher, 105. 

Too-goo-lan, 14. 

Toolooah, 57, 58, 61, 62, 71, 85, 
86, 91, 103, 108, 113, 114, 
116, 119, 120, 121, 122, 126, 
133, 134, 136, 149, 152, 153, 
156, 157, 159, 160, 161, 163, 
168, 184, 185, 186, 192, 195, 
196, 197, 198, 201, 202, 208, 
215, 218, 224, 225, 229, 230, 
231, 235, 265, 266. 

Toogoolar, 187, 189. 

Toolooahelek, 58. 

Tos-ard-e-roak, 78. 

Trainors Eeef, 13. 

Tseclluk, 225, 226. 

Tulloch Point, 256, 286. 



U. 



United' States, 5, 12, 30, 186, 
265, 266, 274. 



V. 



Vernoi, George, 236. 

Victoria Strait, 104, 109, 120, 

131, 156. 
Victoria Point, 110, 113, 149, 

287. 
Village, Escpiimau, 254. 
Village, Kinnepatoo, 237. 

W. 

Wager River, 23, 63, 67, 207, 

231 238 
Wall Bay, 131, 147, 162. 
Washington Bay, 30, 89, 90, 108, 

114, 131. 
Welcome, Howe's, 13, 36. 
Wellington Channel, 127. 
Whale Point, 13, 189, 273. 
Wheatley, R, 126. 
Wilks, H., 126. 
Williams, Mr., 269, 273, 274. 
Wilmot Bay, 85, 198, 200, 207. 
Winchester Inlet, 57. 



APPENDIX. 



INUIT PHILOLOGY. 

Perhaps no branch of Arctic research is of more interest 
to the scholar than the language of the people who inhabit 
that region. A careful comparison of the dialect of the dif- 
ferent tribes is of great value in ascertaining their history, 
the origin of the race and the gradual extension of their 
journeyings to the remotest point from their native land yet 
reached by them. It is generally admitted that the North 
American Esquimaux are of Mongolian extraction ; that at 
some period the passage of Behring Strait was ^ffected and -^ 
the immigrants gradually extended their migration to the 
eastward and finally occupied Greenland, where the mighty 
ocean headed them off and brought their wanderings in that 
direction to an abrupt termination. During what period of 
the world's history the exodus from Asia occurred is not 
known. There are those who believe it to have taken place 
when what is now known as Behring Strait was an isthmus, 
the shallowness of the water throughout that channel indi- 
cating the physical change to have been of comparatively 
recent date. Tins ^pinion was upheld by Lutke in his " Voy- 
age Autour clu Monde," vol. 2, page 209, and Whymper, in 
his work upou Alaska, page 94, alludes to the shallowness of 
Behring Strait and also of the sea so named, as permitting 
the whalers to ride at anchor in their deepest parts. Peschel 
in " Baces of Man," page 401, prefers to believe that the 
transfer was made while Behring Strait still held its present 
character. 

There are not wanting . authorities who seek to show that 
the entire Western Continent was thus peopled by immigra- 
tion from Asia, and similarity of feature with the Mongolian 



300 APPENDIX. 

is traced even to the most southern tribes of South America. 
The close connection between the " medicine men"of the Indians 
the arng-ke-kos of the Esquimaux and the shamans of Siberia 
and Brazil are also quoted to show the probability of one 
origin. It is, however, in the language of the hyperborean 
races of America and Asia that the strongest proofs of a like 
origin is found. The Tshuktshi of Northern Asia, the Esqui- 
maux of America, and the Namollo, all bear a very close re- 
lationship, especially in linguistic characteristics. 

In common with all the aboriginal languages of America, 
the Esquimaux language is agglutinative, though, for the ac- 
commodation of the white strangers who visit their shores, 
they separate the words and use them in a single and simple 
form. In its purity it employs suffixes only for the definition 
and meaning, though complex sentences are often formed of 
a single word — that is, it is a polysynthetic in character. 
No philologist familiar with the whole territory has ever 
made a comparison of the dialects of the polar tribes, proba- 
bly because no philologist is familiar with all the dialects 
spoken there. Everything therefore that would tend to 
throw any light upon the subject or to place before the 
scholar material by which to prosecute such philological 
studies must be regarded as of importance. 

The long residence of the Danes in Greenland and their 
intermarrying with the native Esquimaux has led to a more 
thorough acquaintance with the language of the aborigines 
of that continent than any other portion of the polar regions. 
In fact, as long 'ago as 1804 a complete dictionary of the 
Greenland tongue was published by Otho Fabricius, the 
translation being in the Danish language. With the excep- 
tion of a few fragmentary vocabularies, this is the only work 
upon which the traveller or the student of the languages of 
the Polar regions can depend. 

Mr. Ivan Petroff, the Alaskan traveller, has taken some 
pains to compile a vocabulary of the various dialects of the 
Pacifiic races with whom he has sojourned, which, when pub- 
lished, will form another link in the chain by which the 
scholar may trace the spread of the Asiatic tribes along the 
northern seaboard of America. With the publication ol the 



APPENDIX. 301 

subjoined vocabulary, in continuation of the philology of the 
central or Iwillik tribes, the chain may be considered com- 
plete. 

With these people many of the familiar sounds of the civil- 
ized languages are found, as, for instance, the child's first 
words, an-an-na (mother), ah-dad-ah (father,) ah-mam-mah 
(the mother's breast), ah-pa-pah (little piece of meat, either 
raw or cooked). Then there is the very natural expression 
for pain or sickness — ah-ah. Many words seem to indicate 
the meaning by imitating the action or sound to be described, 
as the motion of the kittewake when it swoops down toward 
you with its petulant cry is well described by the word 
e-sow'-ook-suck'-too and the vibratory motion of a swinging- 
pendulum by ow,-look-a-tak'-took. 

The superlative degree is expressed by the suffix adelo — 
as amasuet (plenty) and amasuadelo (an immense number) ; 
also tapsummary (long ago) and tapsumaneadelo (a very 
long time ago). Examples could be multiplied, but are not nec- 
essary. The suffix aloo has somewhat of a similar meaning, or 
as " Esquimau Joe " translated, it signifies " a big thing ; " thus, 
ivick (walrus), ivicaloo (a big walrus) ; shoongowyer (beads), 
shoongowyaloo (big beads \ etc. Persons are named usually 
after some animate or inanimate object, and in repeating to 
you their own or some one else's name they usually affix the 
word aloo, as ishuark is a black salmon and also a man's 
name, but in mentioning the name they always say Ishuark- 
aloo, though such ceremony is not indulged in on ordinary 
occasions. 

Igeark-too signifies spectacles, and because Lieutenant 
Schwatka always wore eye-glasses he was known to the 
natives as Igeark-too-aloo. His companion, the Herald cor- 
respondent, was known by a less dignified appellation. A 
similarity between his name, as they pronounced it, and the 
English word "mosquito," — or, as they called it "misser- 
geeter " — led them to distinguish him by the Innuit name for 
that little pest, keektoeyak-aloo — as "Joe "would translate 
it " a big mosquito." They make no distinction in gender, 
often the same name being applied to men and women. There 
were a man and a woman at Depot Island each named Shiksik 



302 APPENDIX. 

(ground squirrel), and you had to distinguish which one you 
intended when you spoke of either. 

They seldom take the trouble to make explanations, and a 
singular mistake occurred once at Depot Island in that way. 
On one of the small islands, near the mainland and Hudson 
Bay, Lieutenant Schwatka saw, in the fall of 1878, a very fine 
looking dog, called E-luck-e-nuk, and asked its owner's name. 
He was informed that it belonged to Shiksik, and, as the old 
woman of that name was in the camp and he knew of none 
other, he offered to buy it from her for his dog team. She 
consented to the proposed transfer very readily, and said it 
was a very fine dog indeed, she had no doubt it would give 
entire satisfaction. Some time during the winter, after the 
hunters had all returned from the reindeer country, a little 
old man offered to sell Lieutenant Schwatka a very fine large 
dog for one pound of powder and a box of caps, and, when 
requested to produce his dog, brought in E-luck-e-nuk. The 
Lieutenant recognized the animal at once by a broken ear 
and a loose-jointed tail, and, smiling graciously, told the 
would-be dog seller that the dog already belonged to him by 
purchase from Shiksik for a similar price, to her in hand paid 
about six weeks prior to the present occasion. The old man 
did not seem to understand the matter very clearly and went 
out for an interpreter, whom he found in " Esquimau Joe." 
The latter then stated that the dog in question belonged to 
the person then present, and when Lieutenant Schwatka in- 
dignantly asserted that every one in camp declared the dog 
belonged to Shiksik at the time of purchase, Joe remarked, 
u At's all right ; he name Shiksik, too." As an example of 
the simplicity of the Innuit character, it should be remarked 
that when the purchase was originally made, all the people 
looked complacently and admiringly on without a word of 
explanation, though they well knew the mistake, merely re- 
marking the unexampled generosity of Igeark-too-aloo. 
Under such adverse circumstances does the barterer ply his 
traffic with the Esquimaux. 

It is exceedingly difficult to secure a good interpreter among 
these people. Even "Esquimau Joe," who travelled so long 
with Captain Hall, and lived so many years in the United 



APPENDIX. 303 

States and England, had but an imperfect knowledge of the 
English language, though he had been conversant with it 
almost from infancy. There was, however, at Depot Island, 
a Kinnepatoo Innuit, who came there from Fort York in the 
fall of 1878, who spoke the Engiish language like a native — 
that is to say, like an uneducated native. He would prove 
almost invaluable as an interpreter for any expedition that 
expected to come much in contact with the Esquimaux, as 
all their dialects were understood by him. His father had 
spoken English and was Dr. Rae's interpreter upon many of 
his Arctic journeys. This young man had also accompanied 
that veteran explorer upon his voyage up the Qnoich River, 
and from Repulse Bay to Boothia, at the time he ascertained 
the fate of the Franklin expedition. In translating from the 
English to the Innuit language he usually employed the Ken- 
nepatoo, his native dialect, which at first was quite confus- 
ing, the accentuation of the words being so peculiar to one 
familiar with the Iwillik tongue only. From him much infor- 
mation concerning the language was derived, and through him 
one who would give careful consideration could secure much 
valuable matter, especially concerning the structure of the 
language. 

In one instance, at least, the Innuit language has an advan- 
tage over the French. They have a word for " home." You 
ask an Innuit, Na-moon'? or Na-moon,-oct-pick (Where are 
you going ?) and he may reply, Oo-op-tee'-nar (Home — that 
is, to my igloo, or my tent, as the case may be). There is an 
expression that sounds familiar to ears accustomed to the En- 
glish tongue, but which has another meaning in their lan- 
gurge — Ah -me or ar-nry'. This is not an exclamation of 
regret, but simply means, " I do not know." 

In the higher latitudes sounds are conveyed to a long dis- 
tance, owing partially to the peculiar properties of the atmos- 
phere, the ^comparative evenness of the surface and to the 
absence of other confusing sounds, for under other conditions 
they would not be transmitted to any unusual distance. It 
used to be the custom in the early summer of 1880 for those 
who had been hunting upon the mainland to come to a point 
on the shore nearest the Depot Island and to call for the boat 



304 APPEXDIX. 

to be sent to ferry them over. This nearest point was by 
triangulation two miles and a half distant. When, however, 
the distance would be too great for conversation, or the wind 
would be in the wrong direction, a few signals were used that 
could be distinguished a great way off. The signal to " come 
here " is given by standing with your face toward the party 
with whom you desire to communicate and then raising your 
right arm to the right and moving it up and down like a pump 
handle. The effect can be increased by holding a gun or 
your hat or anything that can be seen at a greater distance 
in the moving hand. The signal " yes " is made by turning 
your side to the party and bowing your body forward several 
times, forming a right angle at the waist. 

The Esquimau language, though comprising but few words, 
is one that is difficult for foreigners to acquire and equally 
difficult to write, owing to the existence of sounds that are 
not heard in any of the civilized tongues and not represented 
by any combination of the letters of the English alphabet. 
Though somewhat gutural it is not unmusical, and for the 
sake of euphony final consonants are often omitted in conver- 
sation. As for instance, the Inuit name for Eepulse Bay, 
Iwillik, is more frequently called, " Iwillie," a really musical 
sound. And so with all such terminations. It is not difficult 
for a stranger to acquire a sufficient knowledge of the lan- 
guage to enable him to converse with the natives who inhabit 
the coasts and are in the habit of meeting the whalers who 
frequent the nothern waters in the pursuit of their avocation. 
There is a kind of pigeon English in use in these regions that 
enables the strangers to communicate with the natives and 
make themselves understood, though they would understand 
but little of a conversation between two natives. As an il- 
lustration, the word "notimer " means "where," and " ki-yete " 
is used for any form of the verb "to come ;" therefore "noti- 
mer ki-yete " would be understood by them to mean " Where 
do you come from?" Now one native addressing another 
would not use that form at all, but would say "Nuke-pe- 
wickt," which bears no resemblance to the words used in the 
whalers' language. Also, take the same word " notimer " and 
follow it with " owego," which is used for any form of the 



APPENDIX. 305 

verb to go, and you have "Notimer owego," "Where are you 
going?" The native, however, would say " Namoon - ock- 
pict." or perhaps " Nelle-ock-pin " (which way are you go- 
ing?). Still they would readily understand the expression 
familiar to the whalers and traders, as the words are really 
Esquimau words, but used in a free, broad sense ; as, for in- 
stance, the reader would understand a foreigner who used the 
word "speak" instead of the other words expressing the 
same thought, as "tell," "ask," "talk," &c. "Speak Charles 
come here " would convey intelligence to your mind and be 
understood as well, though not so readily until accustomed 
to it, as "Tell Charles to come here." 

There are also words that neither belong to the Esquimau 
nor any other language, but are very valuable and expressive. 
" Sel-low " has been used for so long a time to express the 
idea " sit down," and the application of the latter term is so 
broad, that " sel-low " has been incorporated into the lan- 
guage and was understood even by the natives of the interior 
whom we met on our sledge journey and who had more of 
them never before seen a white man. As, for example, you 
would ask, " Emik sellow cattar ?" (" Is there any water in 
the pail ?") and be thoroughly understood, though a native 
would say, "Cattar, emik ta-hong-elar ?" Another useful 
word adopted from the unknown is " seliko," which means to 
kill, shoot, break, bend, scratch, destroy or any kindred 
thought. "Took too, seliko, ichbin?" (Did you kill any 
reindeer?) The old fashion way of putting it is, "Took too 
par ?" But that would only be understood by the natives. 

Our interpreter, Ebierbing (Esquimau Joe), says that the 
language has undergone considerable change since the ad- 
vent of white men, and even since his early boyhood, and 
sometimes would tell me of meeting strangers, who came 
into camp, from the interior who spoke " old fashion," as he 
called it. This, he said, was expecially the case with the in- 
habitants of Southampton Island, called by the natives " Sed- 
luk." Though situated directly in the line of travel of the 
whalers in Hudson Bay, all of whom pass directly along its 
rocky coast, it is an almost unknown territory. It is known 
to be inhabited, but its people are seldom seen. The head 
20 



306 APPENDIX. 

of tlie island is far from Iwillik, and the frozen straits that 
separate the two countries would afford an admirable route 
of communication. The island is said to be well stocked 
with game and the inhabitants are comparatively comforta- 
ble. While our party was in Hudson Bay a whaler was 
wrecked on the western coast of Southampton, north of cape 
Kendall, and the crew easily secured a reindeer the day they 
landed. They remained there but two days and then sought 
the other shore of Howe's Welcome, so as to be in the course 
of the other whalers then in the bay in order that they might 
be picked up by them. They said, however, that if compelled 
to remain on the island they had no doubt of their ability to 
secure plenty of game to maintain them, or at least to keep 
off scurvy. Last year the captain of the wrecked vessel visi- 
ted the island of the scene of the wreck in order to save as 
much as possible from destruction. He went in a whale 
boat with a crew of Iwillik Esquimaux, and while there met 
with a party of the natives. I subsequently had a talk with 
the captain's Iwillik crew and inquired about the people of 
Sedluk. They told me that their language was "old-fash- 
ioned " and that their arms and implements were mostly of 
the obsolete pattern of the Stone Age. 

Though living so near together there had been no commu- 
nication between the nations ; and only once before, about 
three years previous to my visit to Hudson Bay, when a 
whale had gone ashore on Sedluk, an Iwillik native on board 
the vessel that killed the whale went with the crew to claim 
the carcases and brought news of the foreign country and its 
people. I was told that the language of these people of Sedluk 
was similar to that spoken by the fathers and grandfathers 
of the Iwillik tribe. They had evidently the same origin, and 
while one became improved by intercourse with foreign na- 
tions and adopted words from foreign tongues, the other 
remained as it was in the past, unimproved by interchange 
of ideas. I have never seen anything like a full glossary of 
the Esquimau language, and believe that at this time, when 
Arctic affairs are attracting so much attention everywhere, a 
list of the most important words used in communicating with 
the natives, and the method of uniting them, would prove 



APPENDIX. 307 

quite interesting. My experience was that though we at first 
found it difficult to talk with the interior tribes they soon 
caught the idea and conversation became easy. Innukpi- 
zookzook, an Ooqueesiksillik woman, who with her husband 
joined our party on Hayes River, learned the method of com- 
munication in two weeks, so that it was as easy to hold con- 
versation with her as with any of those who came Avith us 
from Hudson Bay and had been accustomed to the peculiar 
language since their birth. In fact, as a general thing, we 
found the women much brighter than the men, not only in 
acquiring language but in understanding the descriptions of 
wonderful things in the white men's country. 

It used to be an endless source of amusement to the men, 
women, and children in the Arctic regions to look at the pic- 
tures in the illustrated books and journals. Colored maps 
were also very attractive to them, and the large type in adver- 
tisements apparently afforded them great pleasure. They 
were not at particular to hold the pictures right side up ; side- 
wise or upside down seemed quite as satisfactory. Though ad- 
miring pictures exceedingly, I did not find them very profi- 
cient draughtsmen, and yet nothing seemed to give them 
more pleasure than to draw with a lead pencil on the margin 
of every book they could get hold of, and my Nautical Almanac 
and " Bowditch's Epitome " are profusely illustrated by 
them. Their favorite subjects were men and women and 
other animals, always drawn in profile and with half the 
usual number of feet and legs visible. 



GLOSSARY 



7" 



The following glossary comprises all the words in general use in conversa- 
tion between the natives and traders in Hudson Bay and Cumberland Sound, 
and a thorough knowledge of it would enable the student to make himself 
understood throughout the entire Arctic, with the assistance of a few signs 
which would naturally suggest themselves at the proper time : 



A. 

Arrow — Kok'-yoke. 

Arm — Tel'-oo. 

Another — I-pung'-er. 

All night — Kuee-en'-nah. 

Angry— Mar-me-an'-nah. 

All — Ter-mok-er-mingk. 

Autumn — Oo-ke-uk'-shark. 

Afraid — Kay-pe-en'-nah . 

A little while ago, to-day — 

Wateh-eur'. 
Ask — O-kow-te-vah'-vor. 
Antlers — Kug'-le-you. 
Axe — Oo'-lee-mar. 
Aurora Borealis — Ok-sel-e-ak- 

took, ok-shan'-ak-took. 
Air — Ar-ne-yung'-ne-uk. 
After, or last — O-puk'-too. 
After (to carry) — Ok-la-loo'-goo. 
After (to bring) — I'-vah. 
Always — E-luk-o-she'-ar. 
Alone — In-nu-tu-a-rk'. 
A game (like gambling) — Nu- 

glu-tar. 
A herd — Ah-mik-kok'-too. 
Act of medicine men — Suk-ki'-u. 
Apples (dried) — Poo-wow'-yak. 
Ankle — Sing-yeung'-mik. 
Arm — Ok-sek'-too . 

B. 

Bear — Nan'-nook. 

Bear (cub) — Ar-took'-tar. 



Bullet — Kok'-yoke. 

Bow — Pet-e'-chee. 

Bird — Tig'-me-ak. 

Boots — Kum'-ming. 

Blood — Owg. 

Black— Muk'-tuk. 

Belch — Neep'-shark. 

Brother — An'-ing-er. 

Bones — Sow'-ner. 

Bag — Ik-pe-air'-re-oo. 

Book — Muk-pet-toe'-up. 

Belt — Tep'-shee. 

Blubber — E-din-yer'. 

Bashful — KuDg-Ave-shook'-pook. 

Blue — Too-mook'-took. 

Breastbone — Sok'-e-djuck. 

Backbone — Kee-mik'-look. 

Belly — Nong'-ik. 

Brain — Kok'-i-tuk. 

Beard — Oo'-mik. 

Beads — Shoong-ow'-yah. 

Blanket — Kep'-ig. 

Break — Sel'-li-ko. 

Bark — Oo-we-uk'-too'. 

Boil — Kul-ak'-pook. 

Bite — Kee'-wah, O-kum-wik'- 

poo. 
Breathe — Ar-nuk-ter-re'-uk. 
Build snow house] — Ig-loo-le'- 

yook. 
Burn — Oon-ok'-took. 
Big river — Koog-ooark'. 
Brass headband — Kar'-roong. 
Butcher knife — Pee'-low. 



GLOSSARY. 



309 



Before (or first) — Kee'-sah-met, 

Oo-tung-ne-ak'-pung-ar. 
Bring (verb) — Tik-e-u-dje'-yoo. 
Body — Kot'-e-jeuk. 
Black moss — Kee-now'-yak. 
Big lake — Tussig-see'-ark. 
Berries (like red raspberries) — 

Ok'-pict. 
Berries (small black) — Par-wong. 
Berries (large yellow) — Kob'-luk. 
Bill (of bird)— See'-goo. 
Button — See'-ah-cote. 
Buttonhole — See-ok-wahk'-pe- 

ok. 
Blubber — Oke-zook. 
Blubber (oil tried out) — Tung'- 

yah. 
Bitch — Ahg'-neuck. 
Ball of foot — Man-nook'-kok. 
Bend (verb) — Ne-yook'-te-pook. 
Break (verb) — E-ling-nuk'-poo, 

!Nok'-ok-poe, ISToo-week'-pook, 

Kow'-poo. 
Beat (as a drum, verb) — Moo'- 

mik-took. 
Beat (snow off of clothing, verb) 

— Tee-look'-took-took. 
Beat (with club, verb) — Ah-now- 

look-took. 
Boots (deerskin) — Ne'-u, Mit- 

ko'-lee-lee. 

C. 

Caps — See'-ah-dout. 

Cheek — Oo-loo'-ak. 

Codfish — Oo'- wat. 

Come here — Ki-yeet', ki-low', ki- 

ler-root'. 
Clothing — An'-no-wark. 
Clear weather — Nip-tark'-too. 
Cold— Ik'-kee. 
Cup — E-mu'-sik. 
Cairn — In-nook'-sook. 
Clam — Oo-wil'-loo. 
Child — Noo-ter-ark'. 
Cloud — Nu'-yer. 
Chief — Ish-u-mat'-tar. 
Cook — Coo-lip-sip'-too. 
Canoe — Ky'-ak. 



Coat (inside) — Ar-tee'-gee. 

Coat (outside) — Koo'-lec-tar. 

Cloth — Kob-loo-nark'-tee. 

Child, or little one— Mik'-ke (ab- 
breviation of mik-e-took-e-loo, 
little). 

Cask — Kah-tow-yer. 

Cry (verb) — Kee-yie'-yook. 

Cap, or hood — Nah'-shuk. 

Carry (verb) — Ok-lah-loo'-goo. 

Chew (verb) — Tum-wah'-wah. 

Cut (verb) — Pe-luk'-took. 

Cross-eyed — Nak-oon-i'-yook. 

Copper — Kod-noo'-yer. 

Calf (of leg) — Nuk-i-shoong'- 
nuk. 

Crawl (verb) — Parm'-nook-took. 

Cough (verb) — Coo-ik-suk'- 
took. 

Come (verb) — Tee-kee-shark'- 
took-too. 

Commence (verb) — Ah-too'-ik- 
now'-ook-took. 

D. 

Dog — Ki'-mak, King'-me. 
Doe fold)— No-kal'-lee. 
Doe (young) — Nu-ki'-etoo. 
Day, or to-daj^ — O-gloo'-me. 
Day after to-morrow — Oo-al-e- 

an'-nee. 
Day before yesterday — Ik-puk- 

shar'-nee. 
Duck— Me'-ah-tuk. 
Dangerous — JSTang-e-yang-nak'- 

took. 
Dog harness — Ar'-no. 
Dead — Tuk'-ah-wuk. 
Dark — Tark, ta-ko'-nee. 
Down — Tow'-nau-ee. 
Dawn — Kow-luk'-poo. 
Door — Mat'-dor, par, koo'-tuk. 
Daughter — Pun'-ne. 
Dress — Au-a-wark'-took. 
Drown — Ki-yar'-wu k. 
Drink — E'-mik-took. 
Dream — See-muk'-took-pook. 
Do you like ?— U-mar'-ke-let-it- 

la? 



310 



GLOSSARY. 



Dripping water — Ko-duk'-too, 

Kush-e-koo'-ne. 
Do (verb) — I-u-met'-u. 
Dried Salmon — Pe-ip'-se. 
Deerskin drawers — E'-loo-par. 
Deerskin trousers — See'-lah-par. 
Dive (verb) — Me'-pook. 
Dislike (verb) — Pe-u-wing-nah- 

lab'-yar. 



i-:. 



Ear — See'-a-tee. 

Eyes — E'-yab. 

Ermine — Ter'-re-ak. 

Elbow — E-quee'-sik. 

East — Tar'-wan-ne. 

Early — Oo'-blah. 

Every day — Kow'-ter-man. 

End for end— lg-loo'-an-ar. 

Entrails — Ein '-er-loo. 

Egg — Mnn'-ni k. 

Eat — Ner-ee-uk'-took-too. 

Empty — E-mah'-ik-took. 

Everytbing or every one — Soo- 

too-in'-nnk. 
Every night — OocY -nook- ter- 

mock'-er-mingk. 
Eye tootb — Too-loo'-ah-el'-lek. 
Enougb — Te-ter'-par. 



V. 



Fox — Ter-re-ar-ne'-ak. 

Eire— Ik'-o mar. 

Pish— Ik'-kal-nk. 

Fur— Mit'-kote. 

Foot: — Is'-se-kut. 

Face — Kee'-nark. 

Finger ring — Mik-e-le-rar'-oot. 

Female — Nee-we-ak'-sak. 

Far — Oon-wes'-ik-poo. 

Farewell — Tare-wow'-e-tee. 

Finisbed — In-nuk'-par. 

File — Ag'-e-yuk. 

Flipper — Tel'-ar-rook. 

Faster — Ok-sboot'. 

Fork — Kok-e-jerk. 

Fringe — Ne"-ge-ver. 



Feather — Soo'-look. 
Fingers — Arg'-ite. 
Finger (index ) — Tee'-kee-nr. 
Finger (second) — Kig-yuck'-tluk 
Finger (third) — Mik"ke-lak. 
Finger (little)— Ik-ik-ote. 
Full— Put-tab'-took. 
Fly — E-so w-ook-su k'-too. 
Fight — IMeng-nik-par'. 
Feel — Tep-sik-ak'-took. 
Freeze — Keegk-e-yook'. 
Forget — Poo-yuk'-too. 
Find (verb) — Nin-e-va'-ha. 
Finish (verb) — In-nuk'-par, Koo- 

lee-war'. 
Fall (verb, neuter) — E-yook-ar'- 

took. 
Fall (verb, a person) — Pard'-la- 

took. 
Float (verb) — Pook-tab-lak'-too. 
Fetch (verb) — I-ik-sek'-took. 
Finger-nail — Kook'-ee. 
Fore arm — Ah'-goot. 
Follow (verb) — Toob-yok'-she- 

yook. 
Fish (verb) — On-le-ak'-took. 
Feed dogs (verb) — Kig-me-ar'-re- 

ook. 
Fold (verb) — Pir'-re-pook. 
Forehead — Kow'-roong. 
Frozen (or frost) — Quark. 



a. 



Gun — Suk-goo'-te-gook. 

Goose — Ne-uk'-a-luk. 

Gloves — Po'-ah-lo. 

Good — Mah-muk'-poo. 

Glad — Kuyan'-a-mik. 

Gone — Peter-hong'-a-too. 

Go — Owd-luk'-poo. 

Give me — Pel'-e-tay. 

Grave — E-le'-wah. 

Green — Too-me-ook'-took. 

Gun cover — Powk. 

Give (verb) — Na-look'-ze-yook. 

Ground squirrel — Shik'-si k. 

Gravel — Too-wah '-pook. 

Get (verb) — Shoo-mig'-le-wik. 



GLOSSARY. 



311 



H. 



Here — Una, Muk'-kwar. 
Hole — KicT-el-look. 
Handkerchief — Tuk-ke-o'-tee. 
Halo — Ka-tow'-yar. 
Hiccough (verb) — Neer-e - soo- 

ock'-took. 
Home — Oo-op'-te-nar. 
Hot— Oo-oo'-nah. 
Hard (verb) — Se-se-o-ad'-elo. 
Hunt (verb) reindeer — Ah-wak'- 

took. 
Hunt (verb) musk ox — Oo-ming- 

muk'-poo. 
Howl (verb) — Mee'-ook-took. 
Hang (verb) — !Ne-wing-i'-yook. 
Hurry — Too-wow'-ik-took, Shoo- 

kul'-ly. 
Help — E-see-uk'-par. 
Herring (peculiar to King "Wil- 
liam Land and vicinity) — Cow- 

e-sil'-lik. 
Here (or there) — Tap'-shoo- 

mar. 
Hammer (of gun) — Ting-me-ok'- 

tar. 
Heel — King'-mik. 
Hand — Puk'-beeg. 
Hair — ISTe w '-yark. 
Hand — Ar'-gut. 
Husband — Wing'-ah. 
Hard bread— She'-bah. 
How far ? — Karn'-noo-oon-wes'- 

ok-ik-te'-vab . 
Half— E-lar'-ko. 
Hate — Took-pah'. 
He — Una. 

How many — Kap-shay'-ne. 
Hard — See'-see-yoke. 
Hand me — Ki'-jook. 
Hill — King-yar'-ko. 
Hungry — Kahk-too. 
Hear or understand — Too-shark'- 

po. 
Handle — E'-poo-ah. 
How — Kon'-no. 
Heart — Oo'-mut. 



Ice — Se'-ko. 

Iron — Sev'-wick. 

I, me, mine, etc.— Oo-wung'-ar. 

Ice chisel — Too'-woke. 

Instep — Ah-look. 

It is better, or, is it better— Pe- 

e-uke'. 
Island— Kig-yeuck'-tuck. 
Island (small)— Kig-yuk-tow'-ar. 
Inside — E-loo-en'-ne. 
Intestines — Ein'-er-loo. 
Indian — Ik'-kil-lin. 



Jack knife — O-koo-dock'-too. 
Jump (verb) — Ob-look'-took. 
Jump — Ob-look'-took; 
Just right — Nah-muck-too. 

K. 

Kettle — Oo-quee'-zeek. 
Kidney — Tock'-too. 
Kill— To-ko-pah '-hah. 
Knee — Nub-loo'-te. 
Knuckles — Nub-we'-yan. " 
Kiss (rub noses) — Coon'-e-glew. 
Kittewake — E-muk-koo-tar'-yer. 
Kill (verb, reindeer) — Took'-too- 

par. 
Kill (verb, bear) — ISTan-noo'-me- 

owd. 
Keep (verb) — Pah'-pah-took. 

L. 

Little river — Koog-ah-lar'. 

Lose (verb) — I-see'-u-wuck. 

Lower jawbone — Ah-gleer'-roke. 

Like ( verb) — Pe-u- we'- we-yook. 

Lungs — Poo'-wite. 

Long ago — Tap-shoo-man'-ue. 

Lead — Ok'-ke-gook. 

Lip (upper) — Kok-tu'-we-ak. 

Lip (lower) — Kok'-slu. 

Leg — Ne'-yoo. 

Loon — Kok'-saw. 



312 



GLOSSARY 



Look— Tuk'-ko. 

Large — Ad '-no-yoke. 

Love — Kou-yah-e'-vah-viok. 

Liver — Ting'-you. 

Lake — Tus-sig. 

Light — Ood'-luk, oo'-blook. 

Laugh — Ig-Iuk'-too. 

Lift — Kee'-wi k- took. 

Leak — Arng-mi -yook. 

M. 

Musk-ox — Oo'-ming-munk. 
Midnight — Oo'-din-wark. 
Moon— Tuk'-luk. 
Man — Ang'-oot, 
Mou th — Kang'-yook. 
Medicine man — Arng'-ek-ko. 
Male — Nu-kup'-e-ak. 
Much — Am-a-suet'. 
Meat — Neer'-kee. 
Meat cooked — Oo-yook'. 
My son — Ear'-ken-ear-ar. 
Marrow — Pat'-ak. 
Mountain — King'-yi. 
Musquito — Keek-toe'-yak. 
Make — Mix-uk'-too. 
Moss (running) — Ik-shoot -ik. 
Moss (spongy) — Mun'-ne. 
Mix (verb)— Kar'-te-took. 
Milk — Ah-mar'-mik-took. 
Milk bag — E-we-eng'-ik. 
Match— Ik-keen'. 

N. 

Never— I-pung'-ar. 

Now — Man'-na. 

Nail — Kee'-kee-uk. 

Navel— Col-es'-ik. 

Nostrils — Shook'-loot. 

Night — Oo'-din-nook. 

Needle — Mit'-cone. 

Nose — Tling'-yak. 

Neck — Koon-wes'-ok. 

Near — Kon-e-took'-ah-loo. 

No — Nok'-er, nok-i'. 

Noon — Kig-yuk-kah'-poo-kik- 

ah. 
Naked — Ar-noo-wi-lee-«&-took. 



Nest — Oo'-blood. 
Narrow — Ah-me'-too. 

0. 

Old— Oh'-to-kok. 
Outside — See-lah-tau'-ne. 
Oar — E-poot. 
Old man — Ik-tu'-ar. 
Old woman — Ah'-de-nok. 
Over there — Ti'-mar. 
Out doors — See'-lar-me. 
Observation of sun — Suk-a- 
nuk'-ah-yook. 

P. 

Pencil — Titch'-e-row. 

Pemmican — Poo'-din-ik. 

Pant (verb) — Arng-ni-u-ak'- 

took. 
Pup — King-me-ak'-yook. 
Pour (verb) — Koo'-we-yook. 
Promise — Pee-cla-go-war'-ne. 
Place anything in its sheath — 

E- lee- wah'. 
Put down (verb) — E-leeg'-yoke. 
Place (verb) — Im'-in-ai\ 
Play (verb) — Kik'-it-toon. 
Powder — k'-de-ur. 
Pretty — Mah-m u k'-poo. 
Promise — Pe-dah-go-wah'-nah. 
Paper — Al-le-lay'-yook. 
Ptarmigan — Ok-ke-ge'-ah. 
Pan — Ah-wap'-se-lah. 
Pail — Kat'-tar. 
Pin — Too-be-tow'-yer. 

Q. 

Quickly — Shoo-kul'-ly. 

E. 

Round — Pang'-ar, Arng-mar- 

look'-too. 
Reside (verb) — Noo-mig'-e. 
Row (verb) — E'-poo-too. 
Runners of sled — See'-woong- 

nar, We-ung'-nuk. 
Roll (a bundle) — E-moo'-war. 



GLOSSARY. 



313 



Eest (verb) — Noo-kung-ak'-took. 
Eot (verb) — Skoo-yook'-too, E- 

vood'-nok. 
Eeindeer — Took' : too. 
Eeindeer (big buck) — Pang'- 

neuck. 
Eeindeer (young buck) — JSTu- 

kar-tu'-ar. 
Eeindeer (fawn) — No'-kark. 
Eamrod — Kok'-dook-sook. 
Eed — Owg. 
Eiver — Koog. 
Eabbit — Oo-kae'-ut. 
Eock — We-ar'-zook. 
Eain — Mok'-uk-too. 
Raven — Too-loo'-ab. 
Rapids — E-tem-nark'-zeack. 
Ribs — Too-lee-med'-jit. 
Run — odd uk-too . 
Ride — Ik-e-mi'-yuk. 
Resemble — Ar-cljing' -er. 
Remember — Kow-ye-mu'-wuk-er. 

S. 

Sledge — Kom'-mo-fcee. 

Seal — Net'-chuk. 

Seal (large) — Ook'-jook. 

Seal (bladder nose) — Nets-che'- 

wuk. 
Seal (fresh water) Kosk-e-geer'. 
Seal (jumping) — Ki-o-lik. 
Snow — Ap'-poo. 
Stockings (long) — Ak-luk'-tay. 
Stockings (skort) — E-king'- oo- 

ark, e-nook-too. 
S an — Suk'-e-nuk. 
Star — Oo-bloo '-bleak. 
Skin — Am'-ingk. 
Swan — C oke '- j eu k. 
Sea or salt — Tar'-re-o. 
Salmon — Ek'-er-loo. 
Salmon (black) — Isk'-u-ark. 
Stone — We'-ark. 
Snow knife — Pan-an'-yoke. 
Small — Mik-e-took'-e-loo. 
Some — Tak-man'-ar-loo. 
Swim (verb) — Poo'-e-mik-took, 

Na-'look-took. 
Sink (verb) — Kee'-we-wook. 



Smile (verb) — Koong'-ik-kook. 
Spit (verb) — Oo-e-ak'-took. 
Stare (verb) — E e-e'-yook. 
Skake (verb) — Oo-look'-took. 
Stretck (verb) — Tesh-ik-ko'-me- 

yook. 
Slats of sled — Nup'-poon. 
Screw — Kee-gee-ar'-lee. 
Snow drift or bank — - que'- 

cke-mik. 
Squid (wkale food) — Ig-le'-yakk. 
Spyglass — King'-noot. 
Strong smell — Tee-pi'-e-took. 
Shin — Kuk'-nok. 
Skoulder — Ke-es'-ik. 
Swap (verb) — Ok-ke-la'-yook. 
Skarpen — Kee-nuk'-too'k, Air-e- 

yook'-took. 
Sing (men) — Pe'-se-uk. 
Sing (women) — Im'-nyick-took. 
Sweat — Ar-mi-yok'-took. ~ 
Sneeze — Tug-e-yook'-took - . 
Squint — Kakn-ing-noo'-yook. 
Scare — Kock-se-tek'-poong-ar, 

Ik'-see-book. 
Starve — Pik'- lik- took, Pig - le- 

rark'-pook. 
See anytking coming far off — 

Og-le-luk'-pook. 
Spinal cord — Kitck-e'-ruk. 
Seal spear — Oo-nar'. 
Sealskin slippers — Pee'-nee-rok. 
Sealskin boots (skort) — E'-keek- 

kuk. 
Sorry — Ak-kow'-mit-u. 
Stomack — jSTeer-u'-ker. 
Skot (disckarge of a gun) — Suk- 

ko'-eet. 
Sealskin — Kis'-ingk. 
Saw— Oo'-loot'. 
Spotted — Oo-kee-leur-yere', Ar- 

glark'-took. 
Svuare — Se-nar'. 
Soft — Ak-kut-too-ak'-loo. 
Strong — Skung-e'-yook. 
Snake — Ne-meur'-e-ak. 
Scratch, anotker tiling (verb) — 

Ak-guk'-took. 
Stumble (verb) — Pard'-look-took 



314 



GLOSSARY. 



Snore (verb) — Kom-noo'-we-ook. 

Swear (verb) — O-kah-look'-took. 

Suck (verb) — Tum-woi'-yook. 

Swallow (verb) — E'-wah. 

So — Ti'-ma-nar. 

Summer — w'-yer. 

Shirt — Ar-tee'-gee. 

Spring — Oo-ping'-yark. 

Same — Ti'-ma-toe. 

Sister — IMur-year'-ger. 

Scraper — Suk'-koo. 

Snow stick — An-owt'-er. 

Snow-block — w'-ik. 

Spectacles — Tg-eark'-too. 

Spoon — Al'-lute. 

Sinew — Oo-lee-ute'-ik. 

Sick — Ah '-ah, Ar-ne-ok'-took. 

Scissors — Kib-e-ow'-te. 

Smoke — E'-shik. 

Stranger — Ahd'-lah. 

Sunrise — Suk-ah-ne-uk'-poke. 

Sunset — ISTe-pe'-woke. 

Sit down — Ing-e'-tete. 

Stand up — Nik-e'-we-tete. 

Steam — Poo'-yook-took. 

Sand — See'-ah-wark. 

Snowing — Con'-nuk-too. 

Snow shovel — Po-ald'-er-it. 

Speak— O-kok'-po. 

Sleep— Sin'-nik-poo. 

Ship — Oo'-me-ak. 

Smoke (verb) — Pay-u '-let-tee. 

Scratch — Koo'-muk-took. 

See — Tak'-ko-wuk. 

Smell — Tee'-pee. 

Steal — Tig'-lee poo. 

Show — Tuk-o-shu-ma'-uk-too. 

Sweetheart — E-veuck'-seuck. 

T 

To-morrow — Cow'-pert,Ok'-ar-go. 
Two or three days ago — Ik'-puk- 

shar'-nee. 
Tallow — Tood'-noo. 
Teeth — Ke'-u-tee. 
Tongue — Oo'-guark. 
Tent— Tu'-pik. 
Thunder — Kod'-ah-look. 
Thunderstorm — Sel'-ah-look. 



Trousers — Kok-ah-leeng'. 

There — Ta'-boir. 

Thanks — Quee-en'-nah-coo'-nee. 

These people— Ta'-ma-quar. 

Those people — Tuk'-o-quar. 

Then— Oo-bah'. 

Thread — Eve'-er-loo. 

Tusk— Too'-rok. 

Tenderloin — Oo-lee-oo-she'-ne. 

Tail — Pam'-e-oong'-gar. 

There (in the distance) — Tite'- 

quar. 
Track — Too' -me. 
Tired— Too-ki'-yoo. 
Thumb — Koo-bloo'. 
Thick weather — Tock-se-uk'-too. 
Thirsty — E-me-rook'-too. 
Thick — Eb-zhoo'-zhook. 
Thin— Sah'-took. 
Tatoo — Tood-ne'-uk. 
Think — Ish-u-mi'-yuk. 
Tell — Kow'-you-yor. 
Trace — Ok-zu-nar'. 
That will do — Ti'-mar-nar. 
Think — Ere-kert-sert'-ro. 
Take — Pe-e-ock-i'-re. 
Tear (verb) — Al'-ik-pook. 
Trigger — IN o-kok-tah. 
Toe (big)— Po'-to-wok. 
Toe (first) — Tee'-kee-ur. 
Toe (middle) — Kig-yuck'-tluck. 
Toe (third)— Mik'-e-lak. 
Toe (little)— Ik'-ik-ote. 
Thread (verb) — Noo-wing yok'- 

par. 
Thigh— Kok-too'-ok 
Throat — Too-koo-ed'-jik. 
This person — Tab'-shoor mar. 
Throw (verb) — Me-loo-e-ak'-took. 



IT. 

Ugly — Pe'-ne-took. 
Understand or hear- 



-Too-skack'- 



poo. 
Up or north — Tap-an'-ny. 
Upset (verb) — Koo'-e-yook. 
Upset a kyack and inmates — 

Poo'-she-pook. 
Undress — "We-ze-tk'ook. 



GLOSSARY. 



315 



V. 

Vibrate (verb) — Ow'-look-a-tak'- 
took. 



W. 

Will you ?— E'- ben -loo. 

■Why'?— Shu. 

What ?— Shn'-ar. 

Who, which, what ? — Kee'-nar. 

What is the matter ? — Kon-ah- 

we'-pin. 
Wol verine — o w ' -bi k. 
Weak — Shung-e'-took. 
Whistle— Qo-we-nyack'-too. 
Wake up (verb) — Too-puk'-poo. 
Work (verb)— Sen-uk '-suk-too. 
Walru s — I'-vick. 
Water — E'-mik. 
Wood — Ke'-yook. 
Wo man — A h ' - de-nok. 
Woman's boat — Oo'-mi'-eu. 
Whale— Ok'-bik. 
White man — Kob-lu-nar. 
Wife — Nu-le-ang'-er. 
Whalebone — Shoo'-kok. 
Walrus hide — Kow. 
White gull — Now'-yer. 
Wind — An'-no-way. 
White — Kowd'-look, Kok'-uk- 

too. 
When — Kong'-er. 
Wait— Watch '-ow. 
Where — No-ti'-mer. 
What is — Kish-oo'. 
Winter — Oke'-e-yook. 
Window — E'-o-lar. 
Warm — O'-ko. 
Wolf — Ar-mow. 
Whip — Ip-pe-row'-ter. 
What — Shoo'-ar. 
Wing — E'-sar'-ro. 
Wide — Se-lik'-too. 
Wri st — Nub-g w ok. 
Walk — Pe- shook'-too. 
Write— Titch-e-ruk'-kut. 
Whisper — E-shib-zhook'-took. 



Wake up — Too-pook'-poo. 
Want — Tah-oom-ar-wung'-ar. 
Work — Sen-uk-euck'-too. 
Wink — Kobdoo shook'-too. 
West — Tar'- wan -ne. 



Yesterday — Ip-puk'-shur. 
Young man — Nu-ku-pe-air-we'- 

nee. 
Young woman — Nu-le-uk-sar - 

we'-nee. 
Yes — Ar'-me-lar. 
You — Ich'-bin. 
You and I — Oo-bah-gook.' 
Year — Ok-ar-ny. 
Yawn (verb) — I-ter'-uk-poo. 
Yell (verb) — Ko-ko-ok'-took. 

PHRASES. 

Go ahead — At- tee'. 

What is the name of — I-ting'-er. 

What are you making ? — Shu- 

lah-vik'. 
Who is it ? — Kee-now'-yer. 
Where are you going ? — Nah- 

moon-okt'-pict. 
Where do you come from ? — 

Nuk-ke-pe'-wict. 
I have found it — Nin-e-vah'-hah. 
Is it good ? — Pe-e-uke'. 
I don't know — Am-e-a'-soot. 
Shut the door — Oo'-me-yook. 
Open the door — Mock'-tere-yook. 
Do just as you ylease — Is-you- 

muk-e-yang'-ne. 
I guess — Shu'-a-me. 
Give me a light — Ik-ke-de-lung'- 

ar. 
Give me a drink — Im'-ing-ar. 
Give me a smoke — Pay-u'det-e- 

de-lung'-ar. 
I don't know anything about if: — 

Kow-you-mum-e-mum'-me. 
Where does it come from ? — Nuk- 

ke-nu'-nar ? 
Come in — Kidow'-it. 



Eight here- 



-Muk'-ko-war. 



316 



GLOSSARY. 



Who is it ? — Kee-now-yer. 
I am not sure — Shu'-ah-me. 
Is the meat done ? — Oo-par' ? 
Too much — Pee-lo-ak'-poke. 
Too little — Mik-ke-loo-ak'-poke. 
Which way ? — Nel-le-ung'-nook? 
A poor thing — Nug-a-leen'-ik. 

NUMEKALS. 

1 (One) — Au-tow' zig. 

2 (Two)— Mok'-o, Mud'-el roc. 



3 (Three) — Ping'-ah-su-eet. 

4 (Four) — See'-tah-mut. 

5 (Five)— Ted'-el-e-mut. 

6 (Six)— Ok'-bin-uk. 

7 (Seven) — Ok'-bin-uk-mok'-o- 
nik. 

8 (Eight) Ok'-bin-uk-mok'-a-sun- 

ik. 

9 (Nine) Ok'- bin - uk-see'- tah- 
mut. 

10 (Ten)— Ko'-ling. 

20 (Twenty) Mok'-ko-ling. 



They have little idea of numbers beyond the number of their 
ringers, and such as they can borrow by calling attention to their 
neighbors' fingers. Any sum that calls for more than that is to 
them amasuet (many) or amasuadelo (a great many). 

No Idea of Lekgth of Yeaks. 

It is not at all singular, then, that they have no idea of their 
ages when they get beyond the number of years that the mother 
can keep upon one of the wooden or ivory buttons that hold her 
belt in place. It is impossible, therefore, to tell whether they are 
a long-lived race. There are many among them who bear the 
marks of advanced age, but such may have resulted more from 
hardships and exposure than from the accumulation of years. 
There is a gray-haired old dame with the Iwillik tribe at Depot 
Island who was a grown woman at the time of Sir William Edward 
Parry's visit there in 1821, and remembers the circumstances with 
all the distinctness that marks the early reminiscences of the old 
in every country. There was another woman there apparently as 
old, but there was no early event by which her age could be traced 
except that she told The Herald correspondent that she remem- 
bered having seen Parry on board of a ship in Baffin's Bay when she 
was a little girl. 



FAMOUS TRAVELS AND TRAVELLERS. 
By JULES VERNE. 



Three Volumes, Svo. Very ftCly illustrated. 
Each, extra c/o'h, $3.50. 



What M. Jules Verne has set himself to do in this chief of his works, is 
virtually to tell the story of all the most stirring adventure of which we have any 
written record — to give tha history, "from the time of Hanno and Herodotus 
d;wn to that of Livingstone and Stanley," of those voyages of exploration and 
discovery which are among the most stirring episodes in the history of human 
enterprise. The volume is very fully illustrated with full-page engravings by 
French artists of note, and it is made still more interesting by many fac-similes 
from original prints in old voyages, atlases, etc. 



CBITICAIi NOTICES. 
" Such books teach most valuable lessons of self-control, patience and courage." 

— Christian Intelligencer. 
" One of the most enjoyable books that has come from the fertile pen of Verne." 

■ — Baltimore Gazette. 
" One of the most valuable and fascinating books of history and travel ever written." 

— Louisville Courier- Journal. 

"As a book for boys, it has no superior, and full grown men may take it up and peruse it with 
both pleasure and profit."-- Scotsman. 

"A more interesting and at the same time instructive book than this can hardly be 
imagined and could not well be written."— St. Louis Republican. 

"The book appears to us to be the most meritorious of all Jules Verne's works. Its solid 
merit as an encyclopaedia of explorations and discoveries will insure its success." 

— Episcopal Register. 

"We cannot conceive of a more useful book than this romantic record to put into the hands 
of young people. Give them facts in proper setting and they will have little taste for dime 
novels. ' ' — Christian Advocate. 

"Though the author has evidently felt a strong temptation to exaggerate and bring out the 
startling and romantic portions of his narrative, he has bravely repressed his inclination, and has 
confined himself to facts, which he states in a charming manner, that makes the book read like a 
story," — Boston Post. 

" Even if truth were not stranger than fiction, to the healthful mind it ought to be far more 
fascinating. Such works as this are not only entertaining and informing, but their whole atmos- 
phere is bracing. They are as much better than sentimental heart histories or imaginary personal 
experiences, as a day in the open air is better than a day in a close and crowded apartment 

— New York Observer. 

" This book is not a mere product of the imagination, a historical or geographical romance. 
It is a clear and succinct narrative of the chief explorations and discoveries that have been made by 
travellers from the time of Herodotus down to the P'rench settlements in the Mississippi Valley 
at the close of the sixteenth century. ... In the translation the charming vivacity of Verne's 
style has been retained in all its freshness." — Philadelphia Inquirer. 

"The perfect sincerity of the author in his search for accurate information is manifest 
throughout, and despite his tendency to see and to present the romantic and startling aspects of 
the events he has had to describe, his temper is uniformly that of a truth-seeking and truth- 
telling chronicler, while his manner, of course, is that of a most entertaining story-teller. _ The 
work is profusely illustrated with engravings designed and likely to excite the imagination 
and awaken the curiosity of the reader. It is also very rich in fac-simile reproductions of old 
engravings, maps, plans, etc., many of which have been copied from exceedingly rare books. 
The book may very well be a favorite at the holiday time, but it has permanent worth and 
permanent interest also, which will give it a place in well-selected libraries."— Evening Post. 



** The above book for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent, prepaid, tipon receipt of price, 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers, 

743 and 745 Broadway, New York. 



A NEW EDITION, REVISED BY THE AUTHOR. 



DISCOVERIES AND RESEARCHES 

ON THE SITES OF 

ANCIENT MYCEN/E AND T/RYNS 

By DR. HENRY SCHLIEMANN, Author of " Troy and its Remains." 
With Preface by the HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, 

WITH MAPS, COLORED PLATES, VIEWS AND CUTS, REPRESENTING SEVERAL HUNDRED 
OBJECTS OF ANTIQUITY DISCOVERED ON THE SITES. 

[IN ALL, FIVE HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS.] 



CKITICVIi NOTICES. 



" In this magnificent volume we have finally the 
story of Dr. Schliemann's last and most important dis- 
coveries. He has been the most fortunate of archaeo- 
logical explorers ; for even a greater luck than rewarded 
him in the Troad has fallen to his portion in Argolis, 
* * * We suspect that the final verdict of scholars 
will be that Dr. Schliemann has actually discovered 
the remains of the man, some part of whose history, at 
least, is preserved in the Agamemnon of Homer and 
^Eschylus." — The N. Y. Tribune. 

"Dr. Schliemann's book is worth all the prolegomens 
and commentaries upon Homer that have been written 
since the revival of learning." — The Boston Globe. 

"The most important event of the year." — N. Y. 
Evening Post. 

"This splendid volume is a museum of itself which 
every lover of history and classical literature will feel 
that he must possess, and which any intelligent reader 
is competent to understand and enjoy by means of its 
abundant and truly splendid illustrations." — Buffalo 
Commercial Advertiser. 

" Dr. Schliemann has made the most important con- 
tribution of the present century to Greek archaeology." 
-~The Nation. 

"We commend the volume, with its admirable typo- 
graphy and multitudinous illustrations, to the attention 
of our readers, assuring them that they will find it 
possessed of a rare and enduring interest." — Boston 
Journal. 



" We add our testimony in saying that a copy ol 
Mycenae is necessary to the library of every scholar, 
and — which is no mean praise— that the printing and 
illustrations of this work are worthy of the matter." 
Baltimore Gazette 

" It is in itself a noble achievement of book-making 
art, and has been very aptly called the literary event of 
the season. The work has the interest of romance and 
is profoundly interesting to readers of every class as 
well as to class.cal students." — Newark Advertiser. 

"The interest of the work is not confined to either 
England or America. Every enlightened naticn will 
welcome it, for it opens up a new world to the modern 
generation. No work of the time has attracted wider 
attention." — Boston Post. 

" Dr. Schliemann's discoveries, however, lose nothing 
in importance, whatever theory may be ultimate r y 
accepted. His labors have been profitable in the high 
est degree, while his ' Mycenae ' will stand a perpetual 
monument of his patience, industry, and learning." — 
Boston Sat. Eve. Gazette. 

" Dr. Schliemann's new and magnificent work, 
' Ancient Mycenae ' is a most valuable contribution tc 
the literature and science of the age." — Chicago Inter- 
Ocean. 



One vol. quarto, cloth extra, gilt top, $7.50. 



*** The above books for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent, post or express charges paid, 
upon receipt of the price by the publishers, 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 

743 and 745 Broadway, New York 



"Among- all modern books of travel, we rank these volumes as pre-eminent." 

Dr. Field's Travels Round the World. 



FROM THE LAKES OF KILLARNEY TO THE 
GOLDEN HORN —Eleventh Edition. 



FROM EGYPT TO 



II. 

JAPAN. 



-Eleventh Edition. 



By HENRY M. FIELD, D.D., Editor of the New York Evangelist. 
JSach 1 vol. 12mo. Cloth, gilt top, uniform in style, $2. 



CKITICAIi 

From Rev. A. P. Peabody, LL.D., former 
Editor of the North American Review. 

I have never, within anything like the same space, 
seen so much said of Egypt, or so wisely, or so well. 
Much as I have read about Egypt — many volumes, in- 
deed — I have found some of these descriptions more 
graphic, more realistic, than I have ever met, or ex- 
pect to meet dsewhere. 

By George Ripley, LL.D., in the New York 
Tribune. 

Few recent travellers combine so many qualities that 
are adapted to command the interest and sympathy of 
the public. While he indulges, to its fullest extent, the 
characteristic American curiosity with regard to foreign 
lands, insisting on seeing every object of interest with 
his own eyes, shrinking from no peril or difficulty in 
pursuit of information, climbing mountains, descending 
mines, exploring pyramids, with no sense of satiety or 
weariness, he has also made a faithful study of the 
highest authorities on the different subjects of his 
narrative, thus giving solidity and depth to his descrip- 
tions, without sacrificing their facility or grace. 

Charles Dudley Warner, in th3 Hartford 
Courant. 

It is thoroughly entertaining, the reader's interest is 
never allowed to flag ; the author carries us forward 
from land to land with uncommon vivacity, enlivens the 
way with a good humor, a careful observation, and 
treats all peoples with a refreshing liberality. 

From the New York Observer. 

The present volume comprises by far the most novel, 
romantic and interesting part of the Journey [Round 
the World], and the story of it is told, and the scenes 
are painted by the hand of a, master of the pen. Dr. 
Field is a veteran traveller ; he knows well what to see, 
and (which is still more important to the reader) he 
knows well what to describe and how to do it. 

From the Independent. 

We have seldom read books from which so large a 
variety of readable and instructive extracts could be 
chosen. They are especially suitable for circulating 
libraries and home reading. 

From Rev. Dr. R. S. Storrs. 

It is indeed a charming book — full of fresh informa- 
tion, picturesque description, and thoughtful studies of 
m«n -ountries, and civilizations. 



NOTICES. 

From President Seelye, of Amherst Col. 

lege, who has made the tour of 

the World. 

I have found the record of travels in fields which I 
had myself in part surveyed, so graphically written, 
and with such accuracy, that it has filled me with 
admiration. 

From Prof. Roswell D. Hitchcock, D.D. 

In this second volume, Dr. Field, I think, has sur- 
passed himself in the first, and this is saying a good 
deal. In both volumes the editorial instinct and habit 
are conspicuous. Dr. Prime has said that an editor 
should have six senses, the sixth being "a sense of the 
interesting." Dr. Field has this to perfection. * * * 
The result is no ordinary book of travels for mere 
entertainment, but a series of well-considered mono- 
graphs on countries and institutions now engaging the 
attention of scholars and philanthropists. * * * 
In short, the book is one of marked permanent value. 

From the New York Herald. 

It would be impossible by extracts to convey an 
adequate idea of the variety, abundance or picturesque 
freshness of these sketches of travel, without copying a 
great part of the book. 

From Rev. Dr. Howard Crosby. 

I never read a more attractive narrative of voyage by 
sea or land. Dr. Field has wonderful tact in knowing 
just what to note and what to omit. * * * What 
charms me in these books is that / take the journey. 
Hence, even if the things described have been seen 
and written down a hundred times, / never saw them 
before. 

Rev. Wm. M. Taylor, D.D., in the 
Christian at Work. 

Dr. Field has an eye, if we may use a photographic 
illustration, with a great deal of collodion in it, so that 
he sees very clearly. He knows also how to describe 
just those things in the different places visited by him 
which an intelligent man wants to know about. He 
has, besides, a singularly clear and phasing style, so 
that the attention of his reader is never for a moment 
detained over any obscurity or infelicity of expression, 
but is at once rewarded by the clear perception of his 
meaning. 



** * The «**-■»« s ■• If frr sale by all booksellers, or will be sent, post or express charges paid, upon receipt 
tf the price by the ftu6(Uht~: . 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 

743 and 745 Broadway, New York. 



LfcAe?9 



n!uS. A , RY 0F CONGRESS 



0029708 056 8 



